DECORATIVE   ELEMENTS 
IN  ARCHITECTURE 


I.  PANEL  FOR  THE  ELYSEE 
by  Galland 


DECORATIVE   ELEMENTS 

IN 

ARCHITECTURE 

RANDOM  OBSERVATIONS   ON   THE 

ETERNAL  FITNESS  OF  THINGS 

FROM  A   DECORATIVE 

POINT  OF 

VIEW 


WILLIAM  FRANCKLYN  PARIS,  L.H.D. 

Honorary  Fellow  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art;  Trustee  Museum 

of  French  Art  in  the  United  States;  Member  Architectural 

League  of  New  York;  Lecturer  on  Fine  Arts,  University 

of  Pennsylvania,  etc.,  etc. 


NEW  YORK:  JOHN  LANE  COMPANY 

LONDON:  JOHN   LANE,  THE  BODLEY  HEAD 

MDCCCCXVII 


COPYRIGHT,    IQI7 
BY    JOHN    LANE    COMPANY 


THE-PLIMPTON-PRESS 

NORWOOD'MASS-TJ'S-A 


TO  MRS.  CLINTON  OGILVIE 

1 N  less  degenerate  days,  it  was  the  pleasure  of  the  well-conditioned  class 
to  encourage  the  arts  and  belles  lettres  by  attaching  to  one's  person 
artists  and  poets  who  painted  and  sang  for  the  greater  glory  of  the  age. 

We  are  alas  far  from  that  golden  era,  and  wealth  to-day  is  used  to 
purchase  old  masters  and  not  develop  new  ones. 

The  term  "patron  of  the  arts"  has  been  abused,  and  too  often  It  has 
meant,  as  Samuel  Johnson  so  aptly  put  it,  "one  who  looks  with  unconcern 
on  a  man  struggling  for  life  in  the  water  and  when  he  has  reached  ground 
encumbers  him  with  help." 

To  have  found  one  for  whom  to  patronize  has  meant  to  help  and  en- 
courage in  the  hour  when  help  and  encouragement  were  sorely  needed,  is 
therefor  to  have  found  something  rare  and  infinitely  precious.  The 
inspiration  which  I  have  derived  from  patronage  of  this  character  Impels 
me  to  dedicate  this  modest  volume  to  you. 

So  I,  "that  love  the  old  Augustan  days 
Of  formal  courtesies  and  formal  phrase" 

make  public  acknowledgment  of  my  debt. 

If  aught  that  I  have  done  merits  to  live  beyond  the  brief  hour  for 
which  it  was  wrought,  it  will  be  because  my  hand  was  guided  by  your 
good  taste. 

WILLIAM  FRANCKLYN  PARIS 


2033872 


FOREWORD 

'OO  little  stress  has  been  laid  upon  the 
fad  that  as  much  skill  and  science 
and  understanding  of  art  is  needed 
in  the  adornment  of  the  inside  of  a 
palace  as  is  required  in  the  designing 
and  embellishment  of  the  outside.  The  same  problems 
of  form  and  dimensions  and  styles  which  confront  the 
architect  in  the  planning  of  a  cornice  or  the  placing  of 
a  colonnade  must  be  solved  by  the  decorator  who  has  a 
credence  or  a  carved  chest  to  fashion  or  a  tapestry  panel 
to  install,  with  the  added  consideration  that  whereas 
the  architect  need  only  concern  himself  with  difficulties 
of  line,  the  decorator  must  weigh  both  line  and  colour. 
As  for  the  relative  importance  of  the  inside  and  out- 
side either  of  a  dwelling  or  public  building,  it  all 
depends  on  whether  the  object  is  to  impress  and 
please  those  within,  or  those  without.  The  Moors  who 
builded  the  Alhambra  considered  solely  the  pleasure 
of  those  who  were  to  inhabit  it.  The  interior  is  of  regal 
magnificence;  the  exterior  is  one  of  flat,  unornamented 
mud  walls. 

Although  this  would  appear  to  be  an  extreme  view, 
7 


FOREWORD 

it  is  infinitely  more  logical  than  the  opposite  one  of 
embellishing  the  outside  only.  Yet  examples  are  not 
wanting,  particularly  in  this  country,  of  millions 
spent  on  facades,  and  farthings  only  on  interiors. 
Many  a  costly  gown  of  silk  or  satin  hides  a  tattered 
cotton  petticoat.  However,  there  is  not  the  chief  crime. 
It  is  when  the  petticoat  is  also  costly  and  of  silk,  for 
it  to  be  too  long  or  too  full  or  too  green. 

We  have  made  tremendous  progress  in  art  since  the 
day  of  the  brown-stone  stoop  dwelling,  built  by  the 
mile,  and  the  Eastlake  sideboard,  built  by  the  gross, 
but  our  petticoat  is  still  occasionally  too  green. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  SUNT  LACHRYJVLE  RERUM 21 

II.  RATIONALISM  IN  ART 31 

III.  GUESSING  AND  KNOWING 39 

IV.  THE  INHERITANCE  OF  THE  PAST      ....  56 
V.  PRINCIPLES  AND  ESSENTIALS 66 

VI.  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ORNAMENT  ....  77 

VII.  DECORATIVE  ELEMENTS 83 

VIII.  THE  ART  OF  PENELOPE 94 

IX.  PAINTED  GLASS 118 

X.  WROUGHT  IRON  .  .  131 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PLATE 

I.   PANEL  FOR  THE   ELYSEE,  by  Gal  land  .  Frontispiece 

II.    RENAISSANCE   DINING-ROOM     ....  facing  page  24 
As  for  the  relative  importance  of  the  inside  and  out- 
side of  either  a  dwelling  or  public  building,  it  all 
depends  on  whether  the  object  is  to  impress  and 
please  those  within,  or  those  without 

III.  TABLE— LOUIS  XV 24 

The  forms  of  ornamentation  must  adapt  themselves  to 
the  space  which  they  are  intended  to  decorate 

IV.  GOTHIC  WEDDING  CHEST 26 

The  only  proper  ornamentation  for  a  circular  surface 
is  an  ornamentation  of  curves 

V.  DINING  ROOM 28 

When  it  comes  to  the  fashioning  of  appurtenances  that 
must  be  lived  with  a  whole  life  through,  conserv- 
atism should  rule 

VI.   LIBRARY  TABLE— HENRI   II 28 

It  is  no  more  plagiarism  to  take  a  carved  panel  from  a 
XVI  century  church  door  and  make  of  it  a  domi- 
nant feature  in  a  XX  century  library  table  than 
it  is  to  take  a  word  from  Sir  Philip  Sidney  and  in- 
corporate it  in  an  automobile  prospectus 

VII.  GOTHIC  CHEST 30 

It  Is  better  to  repeat  some  brilliant  epigram  of  the 
ancients  than  to  utter  a  brand-new  platitude 

VIII.  SALON 30 

The  decoration  of  a  room  does  not  hinge  on  the  "  chic" 
which  a  modiste  can  give  to  a  gown  or  the  decrepi- 
tude which  an  antiquarian  can  bestow  on  a  piece 
of  furniture 

IX.  ARM     CHAIR— LYONNAISE     SCHOOL, 

XVI  CENTURY       32 

A  chair  may  be  doleful  or  festive,  formal  or  familiar, 
dainty  or  robust,  masculine  or  feminine 

X.  GOTHIC     SCREEN,     CARVED    WOOD     AND 

TAPESTRY 32 

The  decorator  who  takes  his  art  seriously  should  sub- 
ordinate everything  to  the  attainment  of  harmony 

11 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

XI.  LATTICE  ROOM 34 

Why  do  we  have  breakfast  rooms? 

XII.   UNIVERSITY  CLUB   DINING  ROOMS     ....       34 
Suppose  that  your  dining  room  is  to  harbour  men  only 

XIII.  LOUIS  XVI  CHAIR 36 

If  the  chair  is  to  shelter  a  woman  let  the  decorator 
bring  out  the  full  explicitness  of  that  fact  with 
carved  motifs  and  soft  tints 

XIV.  PANELLED  ROOM— LOUIS  XIV 36 

A  room  intended  for  music  and  dancing  and  the  har- 
bouring of  female  loveliness  and  flounces 

XV.  GOTHIC  TAPESTRY  CHAIR 38 

Dead  wood  and  faded  fabrics  contain  an  inspiration 

XVI.   EMPIRE  CHAIR 38 

A  man's  chair  must  be  explicative  of  the  personage  it 
supports 

XVII.   RENAISSANCE  CHAIR 38 

A  chair  may  be  stiff-kneed  and  unsociable 

XVIII.  TAPESTRY  SOFA 40 

It  is  just  as  fatal  for  a  console  or  divan  to  have  too 
many  legs,  as  for  it  to  be  out  of  proportion  with 
the  remainder  of  the  ameublement 

XIX.   EMPIRE  DESK  CHAIR 42 

A  chair  must  be  designed  with  the  idea  that  its  chief 
object  is  to  accommodate  a  human  body 

XX.   EARLY  EMPIRE  ARM  CHAIR 42 

A  chair  that  is  built  to  please  the  eye  alone  has  ful- 
filled but  part  of  its  mission 

XXI.  LOUIS  XVI   BERGERE 42 

Even  when  the  covering  is  of  Beauvis  or  Aubusson 
tapestry,  anatomical  considerations  should  govern 
its  structure 

XXII.  ARM  CHAIR  FRAME 46 

It  is  Indispensable  for  all  seats  to  be  solidly 
established 

XXIII.  BOUDOIR  ARM  CHAIR     48 

The  difficulties  in  assembling  the  various  component 
members  of  a  chair  grow  as  the  chair  departs  from 
the  straight  line 

XXIV.  ENGLISH   HALL 50 

A  decorative  ensemble  Involves  the  architectural  dis- 
position, the  composition,  colouring  and  forma- 
tion of  the  meubles,   tapestries,   rugs,   lighting 

12 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

fixtures,  the  invention  and  arrangement  of  an 
infinity  of  units,  all  working  toward  the  realiza- 
tion of  an  harmonious  and  homogeneous  whole 

XXV.  LOUIS  XIV  MORNING  ROOM 52 

The  furniture  of  a  man's  room  reflects  the  character 
of  the  man 

XXVI.  CABINET— SPANISH  SCHOOL 54 

The  product  of  the  decorator  is  less  monumental  than 
that  of  the  architect,  but  not  less  difficult 

XXVII.   BOULE  CLOCK 56 

A  form  must  be  beautiful  in  itself.  The  artist  can 
never  hope  to  overcome  its  imperfections  by 
means  of  applied  decoration 

XXVIII.  CARVED  OAK  ROOM 58 

The  condition  of  beauty  is  made  up  of  many  elements. 
The  first  of  these  is  symmetry 

XXIX.   ENGLISH  CLOCK 60 

Another  decorative  element  typical  of  the  Greeks  is 
the  flute  or  furrow  with  which  they  channelled 
their  columns 

XXX.  WATER  COLOUR  DRAWING  FOR  TAPESTRY        62 
In  taking  a  growing  plant  or  flower  for  a  model  the 
artist  must  carefully  analyse  his  model  and  deter- 
mine its  exact  constitution 

XXXI.  WRITING  TABLE,  LOUIS  XV  BOULE   ....      64 

The  production  of  the  artist  must  not  clash  with  the 
idea  of  equilibrium 

XXXII.  UNIVERSITY  CLUB,   REMODELLED  HALL  TO 

PRIVATE  DINING  ROOMS 64 

In  forms  of  two  dimensions,  the  chief  requisite  is  that 
of  a  pleasing  outline 

XXXIII.  LIBRARY— EARLY  XVI   CENTURY 64 

An  ormanentation  can  be  symmetrical  following  any 

number  of  axes 

XXXIV.  LOUIS  XVI    INLAID  DESK 64 

In  objects  having  three  dimensions  form  must  satisfy 
two  essential  conditions:  a  good  proportion  and  a 
good  profile 

XXXV.   ENGLISH  SOFA 66 

Not  only  must  an  object  be  stable,  It  must  appear 
stable 

13 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

XXXVI.  LOUIS  XV  CABINET 68 

If  the  surfaces  are  of  irregular  outline  in  the  sense  of 
elevation,  the  same  inequalities  must  govern  the 
divisions  and  correspond  with  the  variations  of 
the  form 

XXXVII.  LOUIS  XIV  CHAISE  LONGUE 68 

It  is  better  to  allow  the  form  to  remain  naked  than  to 
cover  it  with  ornaments  which  add  no  interest 
to  it 

XXXVIII.  CABINET,   LYONNAISE    SCHOOL,  XVI    CEN- 
TURY        68 

The  symmetrical  mode  can  be  either  absolute  or  rela- 
tive. When  absolute,  the  motifs  will  be  rigorously 
alike,  but  disposed  inversely  upon  each  side  of  an 
imaginary  line  or  axis 

XXXIX.   RENAISSANCE   DINING  ROOM      68 

Divisions  in  the  latitudinal  sense  are  only  optional  when 
they  divide  a  form  which  is  regular  in  outline 

XL.   EMPIRE  ARM  CHAIR 70 

Decoration  is  either  inherent  to  Form  or  else  superim- 
posed or  added  thereto 

XLI.  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  AT  WATER- 
TOWN     70 

No  matter  what  form  9f  division  Is  adopted,  uncer- 
tainty must  be  avoided.  It  is  essential  to  affirm 
and  emphasize  a  perfect  similarity  or  a  notable 
difference 

XLII.  CEILING  PANEL 70 

An  ornament  happily  disposed  within  a  circle  cannot 
be  applied  equally  well  within  a  square 

XLI II.  CARVED  WOOD  PANEL  AND  DOOR 70 

If  the  decoration  Involves  a  sequence  of  curved  lines, 
rectilinear  elements  used  sparingly  create  a  pleas- 
ing contrast 

XLIV.  CARVED  OAK  MARRIAGE  CHEST 72 

In  a  plane  surface,  such  as  a  rectangular  panel  where 
the  dominant  sense  is  vertical,  it  is  essential  to  dis- 
pose the  decorative  composition  following  vertical 
lines 

XLV.  ORIGINAL  DRAWING  FOR  MORNING  ROOM        72 
The  artist  must  adapt  the  ornamental  forms  which  he 
uses  to  the  space  which  he  has  to  decorate 

XLVI.  COLONIAL  HALL  RESTORATION 72 

It  is  easy  either  to  flatten  or  heighten  an  object,  at 
least  apparently,  by  decorating  it  with  lines  either 
horizontal  or  vertical 

14 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

XLVII.  PAINTED  SCREEN 72 

When  the  symmetry  Is  relative  only,  the  motifs  remain 
similar  but  the  details  no  longer  are  alike 

XLVIII.   RENAISSANCE  HALL  TABLE 74 

The  artist  is  confronted  with  the  necessity  of  compos- 
ing the  ornament  especially  to  fit  each  distinct 
form  to  be  decorated 

XLIX.  LOUIS  XIV  REGENCE  COMMODE 74 

An  example  of  perfect  symmetry 

L.  TRANSITION      GOTHIC     ARMOI RE  — EARLY 

XVI   CENTURY 74 

LI.  ARMOIRE— TRANSITION  GOTHIC  TO   REN- 
AISSANCE XVI   CENTURY 74 

Perfect  symmetry  above  and  false  symmetry  below 

LII.  ORIGINAL  DRAWING  FOR  A  SALON    ....      76 
All  works  of  architecture  and  of  decorative  art  should 
possess  fitness,  proportion  and  harmony;   all  of 
which  make  for  repose 

LIII.   LOUIS  XVI   COMMODE 76 

The  first  principle  of  a  good  proportion  Is  that  one  of 
the  elements  of  the  form  must  predominate 

LIV.   DINING  ROOM  PROJET 76 

All  ornaments  should  be  based  upon  geometrical 
construction 

LV.   DIRECTOIRE  CONSOLE .      78 

A  Directoire  console  in  which  the  ornament  designated 
as  "posts"  is  introduced 

LVI.   LOUIS  XVI   PANEL  FOR  WAINSCOTING     .   .      78 
The  use  of  various  units  assembled  together  as  in  the 
trophies  of  the  Romans,  demands  appropriateness 
as  well  as  arrangement 

LVII.  LOUIS  XIV  REGENCE  DOOR 80 

The  shell  which  had  already  had  its  hour  of  popularity 
with  the  Romans,  became  the  rage  during  the 
Renaissance  and  particularly  during  the  reigns  of 
Louis  XIV  and  Louis  XV  ' 

LVIII.  PANELLED  ROOM  — GOTHIC 82 

The  human  face  and  form,  conventionalized  for 
decorative  purposes 

LIX.   LOUIS  XVI   PEDESTAL 82 

A  Louis  XVI  piece  revealing  Greek  and  Roman  ancestry 

15 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

LX(a).   LOUIS  XIV  DIVAN 84 

LX(b).  SPANISH   RENAISSANCE  DIVAN 84 

Variation  from  the  same  theme 

LXI(a).  TABLE  LOUIS  XIV  REGENCE 86 

LXI(b).  TABLE  LOUIS  XIV  REGENCE 86 

Plus  fa  change  et  plus  c'est  la  mtme  chose 

LXII.  PANELLED  ROOM— GOTHIC 86 

An  attempt  at  stylization  in  which  Gothic  and  Renais- 
sance elements  are  joined 

LXIII.  ORIGINAL     DRAWING     FOR     A     DRAWING 

ROOM 88 

LXIV.  ORIGINAL  DRAWING  FOR  A  LIBRARY  ...      90 

LXV.  LOUIS  XV  TABLE 90 

Surfaces  with  double  curves,  concave  or  convex,  exer- 
cise a  particular  restraint  upon  the  decorator 

LXVI.   LATE  XV  CENTURY  TABLE 92 

LXVII.  ORIGINAL  DRAWING  FOR  A  BOUDOIR     .   .      92 

LXVI  1 1.  GOLDEN  TRIPOD.    TAPESTRY  PANEL    ...       94 
Part  of  decoration  of  Salon  of  the  Elysee,  by  Galland 

LXIX.   LYRICAL  AND  HEROIC  POETRY,  by  Galland       94 
LXX.  PASTORAL  POETRY,  by  Galland 94 

LXXI.  CARTOUCHE 98 

From  a  carton  by  Galland  for  decoration  of  the  Salon 
of  the  Elyse"e 

LXXII.  "THE  DEATH  OF  DU  GUESCLIN,"  by  Toudouze      98 
LXXIII.  "THE  CROWNING  OF  NOMINOE,"  by  Toudouze      98 

LXXIV.  "THE  MEETING  BETWEEN  JOAN  OF  ARC 
AND  THE  CONSTABLE  DE  RICHEMONT," 
by  Toudouze  100 

LXXV.  "THE  MARRIAGE  OF  ANNE  OF  BRITTANY 

AND  CHARLES  VIII,"  by  Toudouze    ....     100 

LXXVI.  "VERTUMNUS  AND  POMONA,"  by  Gorguet .   .     102 

LXXVII.  "ENTRY  OF  JEAN    LE   BON    INTO  DOUAI," 

by  Gorguet 106 

LXXVIII.  "THE   POET  AND  THE  SIREN,"    by  Gustave 

Moreau  108 

LXXIX.  WATER  COLOUR   DRAWING  FOR  TAPESTRY    110 
From  the  earliest  civilization  the  decorative  artist  has 
closely  observed  the  growth  of  vegetal  species 

16 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

LXXX.   BEAUVAIS  LOW-LOOM  TAPESTRY,  after  Oudry    112 
LXXXI.  SOFA  COVERED  IN  BEAUVAIS  TAPESTRY.   .     114 

The  paucity  of  orders  for  monumental  tapestries  threw 
the  Beauvais  factory  into  the  making  of  smaller 
pieces  woven  exclusively  on  the  low  loom  and  de- 
signed mostly  as  covers  for  furniture 

LXXXI  I.   XIV  CENTURY  WINDOW 118 

With  the  XIV  century  there  appears  a  tendency  to 
make  a  window  less  of  a  mosaic  and  more  of  a 
tableau 

LXXXIII.   PAINTED  GLASS  WINDOW 120 

The  lead  does  not  always  logically  divide  a  design  but 
frequently  it  asserts  the  contour  and  gives  it  an 
exaggeration  needed  in  large  spaces  such  as  the 
window  openings  in  Gothic  cathedrals 

LXXXIV.  LATE  XIII  CENTURY  GLASS  PANEL  ....     122 

St.  George  and  the  Dragon 

LXXXV.   PAINTED  GLASS  PANEL,  XIII  CENTURY.   .     126 
French  vitrail,  XIII  century 

LXXXVI.   XVI   CENTURY  WINDOW 128 

In  an  English  church  in  Sussex 

LXXXVII.  WINDOW  OF  OLD  GLASS  FRAGMENTS  ...     130 
The  vitrails  of  the  XV  and  XVI  centuries  gain  in 
drawing  and  outline  and  in  the  variety  of  shades 
employed 

LXXXVIII.   IRON   LOCK  PLATE 130 

In  the  XV  and  XVI  centuries  the  use  of  sheet  Iron 
became  general 

LXXXIX.   IRON   LOCK 134 

During  the  XV  century  French  iron  work,  pris  dans 
la  masse,  or  chiselled  from  the  solid,  gained  a  fame 
that  spread  to  every  corner  of  Europe 

XC.  WROUGHT   IRON  CONSOLE 134 

Each  masterpiece  of  delicate  tracery  has  had  in  it  ten 
times  the  effort,  and  possibly  ten  times  the  skill, 
required  in  producing  this  work  from  wood  or  from 
a  substance  that  can  be  carved  from  the  solid  and 
not  beaten  out  in  detail  and  assembled 

XCI.  WROUGHT   IRON   LOCK 136 

This  work  presents  an  architectural  ensemble  in  which 
every  detail  is  carved  from  the  solid 

XCI  I.   LANTERN— LOUIS  XVI  STYLE 138 

A  lampadaire  of  the  XIX  century  that  Benvenuto 
Cellini  or  Caffieri  would  not  have  disowned 

XCIII.   FRENCH  GOTHIC  CHEST 142 

Ironmongery  that  approaches  lace-making.  A  treas- 
ure in  the  Cluny  Museum 

17 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

XCIV.  FRENCH  LOCK  PLATE 144 

XV  century  locksmithing 

XCV.  MODERN  GRILLE— SPANISH  INSPIRATION      146 

Modern  grille  work  showing  Spanish  influence  and 
inspiration 

XCVL  XIV  CENTURY  KNOCKER 146 

XCVII.  FRENCH  DOOR  KNOCKER 148 

French  Knocker  XV  century,  pris  dans  la  masse 

XCVIII.  CHANDELIER 150 

Thanks  to  the  greater  malleability  of  Iron,  the  modern 
product  is  more  finished. 

XCIX.  GOTHIC  LANTERN 150 

A  modern  lantern  in  the  execution  of  which  the  smith 
must  share  the  credit  with  the  designer 


18 


DECORATIVE  ELEMENTS 
IN  ARCHITECTURE 


DECORATIVE  ELEMENTS 

IN 

ARCHITECTURE 


CHAPTER  I 

SUNT  LACHRIAWE  RERUM 

"VfN  the  course  of  that  wonderful  diatribe  against 
the  critics  of  his  day  which  the  only  Gautier 
wrote  as  a  preface  to  his  "Mademoiselle  de 
Maupin,"  among  a  thousand  aphorisms,  each 
more  true,  more  striking,  more  clever  than 
any  of  the  maxims  of  La  Rochefoucauld,  appears 
the  following:  "77  n'y  a  de  vraiment  beau  que  ce 
qui  ne  pent  servir  h  rien"  This  thesis,  which  he 
develops  to  the  complete  mortification  of  the  pres- 
ent and  the  great  glorification  of  the  past,  is 
perhaps  less  defensible  to-day  than  it  was  in  1834, 
but  there  is  yet  enough  truth  in  it  to  provide  a 
moral  for  the  decadence  of  the  minor  arts  which 
some  pessimists  assure  us  is  at  hand. 

If  we  accept  the  truism  that  whatever  is  useful 
is  ugly,  we  must  accept  the  corollary  that  only 
those  who  can  afford  the  useless  can  possess  the 
21 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

beautiful.  It  is  evident  that  a  dish  by  Palissy  or 
Lucca  del  la  Robbia  ceases  to  be  a  dish.  Having 
ceased  to  be  a  dish,  it  becomes  useless  to  those  in 
need  of  a  receptacle  for  beans  or  cabbage,  and 
becoming  useless  it  becomes  beautiful.  This  re- 
ductio  ad  absurdum  is  not  meant  as  a  rebuke  to 
Gautier.  The  masses  may  appreciate  the  beauty 
of  useless  things,  but  having  only  sufficient  means 
to  provide  themselves  with  the  things  they  actu- 
ally need  and  that  are  really  of  use,  they  cannot 
have  or  enjoy  or  possess  the  others.  These  others 
are  for  the  well-to-do,  for  those  who,  having  no 
further  material  hunger  to  appease,  can  turn 
their  attention  to  the  satisfying  of  intellectual  or 
artistic  cravings  —  to  the  acquirement  of  useless 
things. 

It  is  a  condition  which  is  as  old  as  the  world. 
Maecenas,  Lorenzo  de  Medici,  Leo  X,  the  Dukes 
of  Burgundy,  Charles  V,  Louis  XIV,  Sir  Richard 
Wallace,  the  Marquis  of  Hertford,  Lord  Palmer- 
ston,  Prince  Demidoff,  Basilewski,  du  Sommerard, 
Chauchard,  the  Due  de  Morny,  Henry  G.  Mar- 
quand,  were  patrons  of  the  arts  because  their 
revenues  permitted  it.  La  plus  belle  fille  du  monde 
ne  pent  donner  que  ce  qu'elle  a,  and  no  amount  of 
enthusiasm  or  of  art  understanding  will  make  up 
for  the  lack  of  five  figures  in  the  bank  when  it 
22 


SUNT    LACHRIM>E      RERUM 

comes  to  buying  Gobelin  tapestries  or  Caffieri 
bronzes. 

We  are  far  from  that  happy  period  when  a 
Watteau  could  be  picked  up  for  300  francs  or  a 
Mazarin  Bible  for  3  francs  50.  To-day  everybody 
is  more  or  less  of  a  connoisseur.  The  art  amateur 
of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  a 
very  different  individual  from  the  art  amateur  of 
to-day.  Then,  the  collecting  of  unappreciated  and 
undervalued  treasures  was  a  sacred  rite,  a  sort  of 
work  of  rescue  in  which  a  few  apostles  of  the 
beautiful  engaged  out  of  pure  love  for  the  things 
they  unearthed.  They  collected  for  the  joy  of 
collecting  and  would  have  scrupled  to  derive  any 
pecuniary  benefit  from  their  prescience  or  keener 
discernment. 

To-day  we  have  changed  all  that,  and  the  hid- 
eous word  "investment"  is  used  in  connexion 
with  the  acquisition  of  works  of  art.  Thanks  to 
the  frequent  public  sales  in  Paris,  London,  and 
New  York,  Hobbema,  Raeburn,  Monet,  Degas, 
Benvenuto  Cellini,  and  Laurana  are  subject  to 
daily  quotations,  just  like  New  York  Central, 
Steel,  or  Amalgamated  Copper.  Paintings,  wood 
carvings,  rare  books,  furniture,  porcelains  —  all 
are  subjects  of  speculation.  Not  very  long  ago 
one  of  our  most  widely  advertised  patrons  of  the 
23 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

fine  arts  announced  the  purchase  of  several 
Gustave  Moreau  paintings  by  saying  that  he 
had  "just  put  twenty  thousand  on  Moreau"  —  as 
who  should  say,  "I've  just  put  ten  dollars  on 
the  red." 

Almost  inevitably  the  miserable  arithmetic  of 
dollars  and  cents  obtrudes  itself.  The  most  ardent 
devotee  of  Corot,  lost  in  admiration  before  the 
enchanting  perspective  of  a  morning  landscape 
which  he  has  just  acquired,  will  feel,  subconsciously 
as  it  were,  that  his  new  possession  is  worth  ten 
thousand  dollars  in  minted  money.  It  is  a  work 
of  art,  if  you  like,  but  it  is  merchandise  neverthe- 
less. The  transformation  which  has  taken  place 
in  the  general  attitude  of  the  public  toward  art 
in  the  last  fifty  years  presents  two  contradictory 
characteristics:  concentration  and  vulgarization. 

The  constantly  increasing  monetary  value  of 
works  of  art  has  restricted  their  circulation  until 
only  the  extremely  well-to-do  may  enjoy  actual 
possession.  But  the  development  of  photography 
and  its  allied  reproducing  processes,  together  with 
the  general  improvement  in  means  of  communica- 
tion and  travel,  have  spread  the  knowledge  of  art 
over  a  vast  surface.  Thanks  to  Cook's  Tours  and 
the  picture  post  cards,  the  shopgirl  in  Tottenham 
Court  Road  or  the  farmer's  wife  in  Kansas  has  a 
24 


" 
>  1- 

X 


SUNT    LACHRIM/E     RERUM 

mental  conception  of  the  Venus  de  Milo  and  the 
Parthenon.  The  average  postman  of  to-day  knows 
more,  in  a  visual  sense,  about  the  Delhi  Gate  or 
the  Alhambra  than  did  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury a  hundred  years  ago. 

This  familiarization  with  the  aspects  of  art 
objects,  gathered,  it  may  be,  from  cursory  reading 
of  press  dispatches  announcing  the  collapse  of  the 
Campanile  or  the  theft  of  "La  Gioconda,"  has 
refined  the  public  taste  and  raised  the  artistic 
average  to  a  much  higher  plane  than  it  occupied  a 
generation  ago. 

This  is  nowhere  so  apparent  as  in  the  decoration 
of  our  public  buildings.  The  hotels  and  theatres 
of  to-day  bear  the  same  relation  to  the  hotels  and 
theatres  of  the  nineties  as  does  the  present-day 
limousine  to  the  velocipede  of  our  grandfathers. 
This  same  amelioration  observable  in  the  trappings 
of  public  places  is  to  be  observed  in  the  interior 
equipment  of  the  homes  of  the  haute  bourgeoisie. 
The  selling  of  beer  or  cheese  or  boots  and  shoes, 
even  when  done  in  large  quantities,  does  not  con- 
fer upon  the  man  who  does  the  selling  a  faculty  for 
recognizing  art,  but  it  enables  him  to  send  his 
wife  and  daughter  abroad  and  to  put  his  son 
through  college.  Paterfamilias  may  think  of 
Louis  XV  as  a  furniture  dealer  and  imagine  that 
25 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

Sevres  paste  is  something  to  eat,  but  mother  and 
the  children  will  have  a  broader  horizon. 

The  emergence  of  the  human  race  from  primi- 
tive conditions  was  marked  by  a  desire  for 
self-adornment.  The  next  step  was  in  the  em- 
bellishment of  the  place  of  habitation.  In  time, 
specialists  were  developed  whose  talent  and  ef- 
forts were  directed  toward  the  end  of  assembling 
harmonious  forms  and  colours.  Le  Brun,  Mig- 
nard,  Boucher,  Watteau,  Falconet,  Caffieri,  joined 
hands  in  designing  the  furnishings  of  royal  resi- 
dences. A  dessus  de  porte,  a  chair,  a  chimney 
mantel,  a  tapestry  panel,  a  doorknob,  a  stair- 
rail —  all  these  were  worthy  objects  for  striving 
by  the  best  artists. 

To-day  a  house  is  designed  and  caparisoned  en 
Hoc.  We  have  decorators  whose  vocation  was 
revealed  to  them  by  their  taste  in  dress.  The 
result  is  a  cross  between  upholstery  and  millinery, 
a  mongrel  product  that  startles  and  disconcerts. 

Another  demonstration  of  the  day  before  yes- 
terday is  the  "store"  decorator.  Generally  he  is 
an  old-curiosity-shop  character  having  a  non- 
descript collection  of  antiques  to  palm  off.  If  he 
does  not  own  this  debris  himself,  he  is  in  close 
relations  with  the  man  who  does,  and  all  his 
endeavours  are  directed  to  the  disposing  of  some 
26 


SUNT    LACHRIM>E     RERUM 

ancient  Henri  II  chest  or  of  a  wooden  reredos  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  which  he  proceeds  to  flank, 
face,  and  environ  with  the  most  heterogeneous 
retinue  of  "period"  pieces. 

Fortunately  —  or  perhaps  unfortunately  —  the 
decoration  of  a  room  does  not  hinge  on  the  "chic" 
which  a  modiste  can  give  to  a  gown  or  the  de- 
crepitude which  an  antiquarian  can  bestow  on  a 
piece  of  furniture.  There  is  a  technique  to  be 
learned  about  decoration,  just  as  there  is  a  tech- 
nique to  be  learned  about  painting.  A  decorator 
is  an  artist,  and  artists  are  not  born  —  they  are 
made.  The  untaught  decorator  who  has  gradu- 
ated into  his  vocation  via  Fifth  Avenue  and  New- 
port or  by  way  of  Fourth  Avenue  and  the  Hotel 
Drouot  will  probably  ornament  a  rectangular  sur- 
face and  a  circle  as  if  the  two  were  alike,  ignoring 
the  fundamental  principle  that  the  forms  of  orna- 
mentation must  adapt  themselves  to  the  space 
which  they  are  intended  to  decorate.  It  is  use- 
less to  try  to  demonstrate  to  these  self-made 
artists  that  the  only  proper  ornamentation  for 
a  circular  surface  is  an  ornamentation  of  curves. 
The  laws  of  symmetry  were  not  made  for  them. 
Originality  is  their  God  and  Caran  d'Ache  their 
prophet. 

Five  thousand  years  have  taught  them  nothing. 
27 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

Convinced  that  to  be  superlative  is  something, 
they  substitute  pyrotechnique  for  technique  and 
"create"  things  that  cause  the  simple  to  wonder, 
the  cynical  to  sneer,  the  indifferent  to  laugh. 

The  man  who  has  made  a  life  work  of  interior 
decoration,  of  blending  line  and  colour  in  an  har- 
monious arrangement  that  will  be  unobtrusive 
and  rest  the  eye,  instead  of  putting  it  out,  will  be 
satisfied  to  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  artists  and 
artisans  who  have  passed  the  torch  of  good  taste 
on  from  hand  to  hand  through  century  after 
century.  In  such  ephemeral  things  as  bonnets  and 
other  articles  of  dress,  radicalism  may  be  con- 
doned, as  the  harm  done  cannot  be  very  lasting. 
But  when  it  comes  to  the  fashioning  of  appur- 
tenances that  must  be  lived  with  a  whole  life 
through,  conservatism  should  rule.  The  beautiful 
lives  everlastingly.  The  bizarre  lives  for  a  moment. 
Let  us  not  waste  time,  therefore,  in  considering 
the  aberrations  of  Eastlake,  the  dislocations  of  Art 
Nouveau,  or  the  angularities  of  Mission.  Art  is 
a  language,  and  while  here  and  there  it  may  gain 
a  new  word  at  intervals  of  a  century  or  more,  the 
fundamental  vocabulary  remains  the  same.  Let 
us  not  try  to  coin  new  words,  but  rather  to  group 
and  arrange  the  old  words  so  as  to  produce  a 
rhythmical  measure,  a  new  song,  or  a  new  poem. 
28 


1S;*!W» 


SUNT    LACHRIM/E      RERUM 

The  unrhymed  ten-syllable  iambic  line  in  which 
Shakespeare  wrote  his  plays  and  Milton  his  epic 
may  tend  toward  a  beautiful  lifelessness.  Jacobean 
furniture  may  not  always  gladden  the  eye,  but 
lofty  and  grandiloquent  words  and  austere  and 
dignified  furniture  each  have  distinctive  roles  to 
fill. 

It  is  no  more  plagiarism  to  take  a  carved  panel 
from  a  sixteenth-century  church  door  and  make 
of  it  a  dominant  feature  in  a  twentieth-century 
library  table  than  it  is  to  take  a  word  from  Sir 
Philip  Sidney  and  incorporate  it  in  an  automobile 
prospectus.  It  is  better  to  repeat  some  brilliant 
epigram  of  the  ancients  than  to  utter  a  brand-new 
platitude. 

Once  in  a  great  while  the  artist  will  stumble 
upon  a  detail  of  architecture  which  is  dwarfed  and 
overshadowed  in  its  original  application  and  which, 
removed  from  its  surroundings  and  adapted  to  a 
new  work,  at  once  assumes  an  aBsthetic  value 
undreamed  of  by  its  originator.  This  may  seem 
retrogression  to  those  who  must  have  something 
original  at  any  cost,  but  this  world  of  ours  has 
been  whirling  in  space  a  good  while,  and  much 
that  is  altogether  admirable  has  been  done  in 
that  time.  The  roses  that  grew  in  Lesbia's  time 
were  as  lovely  as  those  that  grow  in  the  gardens  of 
29 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

to-day.  Flowers,  however,  may  be  grouped  with 
clumsy  hand  or  else  gain  added  loveliness  from  a 
sympathetic  assembling.  That  is  about  all  there 
is  to  art  and  good  taste:  first  the  eye  to  see  and 
then  the  hand  to  group,  to  assort,  and  arrange. 

We  may  not  train  the  eye;  the  faculty  to 
know  beauty  at  sight  may  not  be  acquired;  it  is 
a  gift  of  the  gods— but  the  hand  may  be  taught. 
The  eye  alone  is  the  critic.  The  eye  and  the 
hand  together  is  the  artist. 


30 


I 


VIII.  SALON 

The  decoration  of  a  room  does  not  hinge  on  the  "chic"  which 
a  modiste  can  give  to  a  gown  or  the  decrepitude  which  an 
antiquarian  can  bestow  on  a  piece  of  furniture 


CHAPTER   II 
RATIONALISM  IN  ART 

HE  decorator  who  takes  his  art 
seriously  should  subordinate  every- 
thing to  the  attainment  of  harmony. 
He  should  consider  carpets,  hang- 
ings, furniture,  wainscoting,  rafters, 
doorknobs,  lighting  fixtures,  wall  paper,  carved 
mouldings,  and  every  detail  of  floor,  walls,  and 
ceilings,  as  so  many  elements  entering  into  the 
fashioning  of  one  complete  "picture,"  as  so  many 
shades  to  be  blended  into  one  "tone." 

It  is  just  as  fatal  for  a  console  or  divan  to  have 
too  many  legs,  as  for  it  to  be  out  of  proportion 
with  the  remainder  of  the  ameublement,  or  else  out 
of  spirit  with  the  room  itself. 

First  of  all,  the  decorator,  if  he  be  an  artist, 
must  get  his  inspiration  from  nature.  The  role 
of  art  is  to  awaken  in  the  mind  the  sense  of  nature. 
What  nature  has  made  is  always  artistic.  The 
most  prosaic,  the  most  unspectacular  of  its  mani- 
festations will  have  in  it  artistic  elements  which 
31 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

the  mind  of  man,  left  to  its  own  imaginings,  could 
never  have  conceived.  Take  a  moss-covered 
boulder  by  the  roadside.  Look  at  it  closely. 
Observe  how  the  colours  are  grouped,  how  fine  the 
tracery,  how  the  edge  of  green  velvet  lichen 
figures  a  spreading  sea  in  which  are  little  islands, 
some  brown  and  spotted  like  chestnuts,  others 
like  rusted  links  in  a  coat  of  mail  touched  with 
verdigris.  Here  is  a  small  tuft  the  colour  of  orange 
peel,  and  a  cluster  of  infinitesimal  small  blue 
flowers  like  turquoises.  See  how  instinctively  the 
greens  are  grouped  with  the  browns,  and  the 
orange  with  the  blues.  How  harmonious  the  en- 
semble, how  the  preponderance  of  one  gives  to 
the  apparently  heterogeneous  shades  a  unity  of 
tone!  What  a  lesson  in  colouring! 

As  for  form,  observe  the  skeleton  of  the  rhinoc- 
eros and  of  the  camel.  It  is  in  the  skeleton  that 
architecture  finds  all  its  formula?  demonstrated. 
In  the  rhinoceros  the  framework  is  heavy  and 
thick-set,  in  accordance  with  its  purpose,  which  is 
to  support  a  massive  and  slow-moving  bulk. 

In  the  camel,  built  for  rapid  movement  over 
the  sands,  the  fundamental  carpentry  is  slight  and 
slender.  The  form  of  each,  down  to  the  last 
detail,  is  in  accord  with  the  functions  to  be 
performed. 

32 


IX.  ARM  CHAIR— LYONNAISE  SCHOOL 
XVI  CENTURY 

A  chair  may  be  doleful  or  festive,  formal  or  familiar, 
dainty  or  robust,  masculine  or  feminine 


X.  GOTHIC  SCREEN,  CARVED  WOOD  AND  TAPESTRY 

The  decorator  who  takes  his  art  seriously  should  subordinate 
everything  to  the  attainment  of  harmony 


RATIONALISM    IN    ART 

So  it  is  with  everything  in  nature.  Always 
"there  is  a  reason." 

Similarly  in  art.  There  should  always  be  a 
reason.  It  should  be  as  easy  for  the  architect  to 
reconstruct  Solomon's  Temple  from  a  wheelbarrow 
full  of  excavated  debris  as  it  is  for  the  naturalist 
to  reconstruct  an  antediluvian  pachyderm  from  a 
fossil  rib  or  jaw-bone.  The  same  theory  of  pro- 
portion should  apply:  the  general  outline  of  a 
building  should  give  indications  of  its  raison 
d'etre  and  of  its  purpose.  Both  in  ensemble  and 
in  detail  the  real  function,  the  uses  to  which  it  is 
to  be  affected,  should  stand  revealed. 

Of  late  years,  however,  the  exterior  often  means 
nothing.  We  no  longer  build  houses;  we  put  up 
facades.  This  reproach,  which  the  disciples  of 
rationalism  lay  at  the  door  of  architecture  of  the 
present  day,  applies  with  equal  force  to  modern 
furniture  and  the  art  of  interior  decoration. 

In  this  generation  alone  we  have  Eastlake  and 
the  so-called  Modern  Gothic  to  live  down,  to 
say  nothing  of  Art  Nouveau  and  Mission. 

While  even  a  journeyman  carpenter  would  to- 
day abjure  the  geometrical  atrocities  of  the  late, 
but  not  lamented,  C.  L.  Eastlake,  there  are  many 
examples  of  his  shapeless  scaffolding  still  to  be 
found.  The  abominations  of  the  Modern  Gothic 
33 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

have  died  a  harder  death  even.  Less  than  twenty 
years  ago  the  neurasthenic  furniture  of  this  period 
pervaded  the  homes  of  our  best  people,  and  only 
yesterday  the  bourgeoisie  went  into  spasms  over 
the  Mardi  Gras  styles,  which,  if  they  were  nouveau, 
were  certainly  nothing  besides. 

The  decorator  of  to-day  may  find  food  for 
thought  in  the  contemplation  of  these  freaks  of 
artistic  aberration,  and  learn  from  the  study  of 
these  a?sthetic  "dont's"  how  not  to  do  things. 
He  will  see  that  a  chair  may  be  doleful  or  festive, 
formal  or  familiar,  dainty  or  robust,  masculine  or 
feminine.  Furniture  need  not  be  inanimate.  It 
may  have  character  and  soul,  and  convey  delicate 
subtleties  of  feeling,  a  sense  of  soft  sumptuousness, 
or  of  rigid  austerity.  It  may  possess  Louis  Qua- 
torzian  grace  and  court  manners,  or  be  stiff-kneed 
and  unsociable.  It  may  be  straddled  by  a  mus- 
keteer or  overspread  with  the  paniers  and  ribbons 
of  the  Marquise  de  Pompadour,  but  be  certain 
that  in  the  one  case  it  will  be  of  solid  oak,  and 
in  the  other  of  brocade  and  gilt  wood. 

Next  to  being  representative  of  itself,  indicative 
of  a  certain  usage  and  of  a  certain  user,  your 
chair,  to  be  convenable  will  have  to  fit  in  with 
the  surroundings,  to  harmonize  with  its  environ- 
ment. Even  our  unsophisticated  restaurateurs 
34 


RATIONALISM    IN    ART 

would  hesitate  to  furnish  their  rathskellars  with 
upholstered  bergeres  of  the  Louis  XIV  period. 
"If  one  has  anything  to  say,  one  might  as  well 
put  it  into  a  chair,"  Mr.  Le  Gallienne  tells  us. 
True,  but  some  chairs  have  a  roistering  spirit, 
and  consequently  talk  wildly  and  in  loud  tones. 
They  must  not  be  put  in  company  with  priggish, 
straight-laced  furniture,  built  with  scrupulous  pre- 
cision, and  speaking  in  modulated  terms  and  in 
the  most  unimpeachably  correct  manner.  In  such 
a  company  a  chair  may  mumble,  or  say  nothing, 
but  it  must  not  shout. 

Consider  a  man's  chair,  —  a  chair  that  would 
suitably  frame  Edward  Everett  Hale  or  Lord 
Kitchener.  It  cannot  be  flippant,  nor  dainty,  nor 
pink.  It  must,  in  a  way,  be  explicative  of  the 
personage  it  supports.  Without  being  unnaturally 
solemn,  it  must  have  poise  and  dignity.  Logically, 
it  will  be  an  Elizabethan  fauteuil,  or  something 
Gothic  and  in  carved  oak.  Or  else  something  in 
leather  or  tapestry.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the 
chair  is  to  shelter  a  woman,  let  the  decorator 
bring  out  the  full  explicitness  of  that  fact  with 
carved  motifs  and  soft  tints.  Even  empty,  let 
such  a  chair  evoke  beauty,  grace,  and  tenderness. 
Dead  wood  and  faded  fabrics  contain  an  inspira- 
tion. There  is  more  than  is  seen  by  the  corporeal 
35 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

eye  in  the  tabouret  of  Marie  Antoinette  or  the 
cradle  of  the  Roi  de  Rome. 

Just  as  the  "sex"  of  a  chair  and  the  uses  to 
which  it  is  to  be  dedicated  must  be  studied,  so  the 
spirit  and  complexion  of  a  room  must  be  absorbed. 

A  room  intended  for  music  and  dancing,  and 
the  harbouring  of  female  loveliness  and  flounces, 
will  lend  itself  to  crystal  chandeliers  and  red  and 
gold  trappings.  Even  here  there  are  graduations, 
and  there  are  ball-rooms  without  these  glittering 
gauds  that  nevertheless  suggest  the  spirit  of 
festivity. 

Think  of  the  varieties  of  dining-rooms.  Some,  as 
a  fitting  accessory,  need  an  ancestor,  real  or  apoc- 
ryphal, painted  by  Velasquez.  Why  do  we  have 
breakfast  rooms?  For  the  simple  reason  that 
soft-boiled  eggs  do  not  harmonize  with  tapestries 
and  old  masters,  but  rather  with  chintz  and  caned 
chairs.  Suppose,  again,  that  your  dining-room  is 
to  harbour  men  only  —  as  for  instance  in  clubs. 
Here,  then,  is  another  problem.  Are  these  men 
wholesale  butter  and  egg  merchants,  or  fish- 
market  folk,  or  are  they  lawyers,  doctors,  and 
men  from  the  professions  and  colleges? 

Not  very  long  ago  one  of  our  most  exclusive 
clubs,  an  organization  famed  for  the  culture  and 
wealth  and  social  prominence  of  its  members, 
36 


XIII.  LOUIS  XVI  CHAIR 

If  the  chair  is  to  shelter  a  woman  let  the  decorator  bring  out 
the  full  explicitness  of  that  fact  with  carved  motifs  and  soft  tints 


XIV.  PANELLED  ROOM— LOUIS  XIV 

A  room  intended  for  music  and  dancing  and  the  harbouring  of 
female  loveliness  and  flounces 


RATIONALISM    IN    ART 

rejoiced  in  a  dining-room  finished  in  red-striped 
burlaps  and  white-and-gold  woodwork. 

Who  shall  say  that  under  certain  conditions 
this  combination  might  not  be  altogether  fitting, 
-say  in  the  dining-room  of  a  ''Votes  for  Women" 
organization?  Here,  however,  it  offended  and  was 
promptly  replaced  by  carved  oak  panelling,  Eliza- 
bethan strap-work  ceiling,  and  carved  oak  furni- 
ture. Since  then  the  food  tastes  better  and  the 
speeches  have  more  wit. 

What  is  true  of  dining-rooms  is  true  of  sleeping- 
rooms,  only  more  so.  The  more,  intimate  the 
apartment,  the  more  individual  should  be  its 
furnishings.  Here,  the  personal  tastes  of  the 
occupant  may  be  given  expression.  His  —  or  her 
—  preference  for  a  colour  may  be  studied,  but 
always  let  the  bed  be  a  bed  and  not  a  ship,  or  a 
sleigh,  or  a  monument,  and  let  the  chairs  be 
sleeping-room  chairs  and  not  garden  seats  or 
library  fauteuils.  And  because  Marie  de  Medici 
slept  under  a  baldaquin  and  behind  curtains,  let 
it  be  remembered  that  it  was  not  because  such 
trappings  appealed  to  her  and  to  her  times  on  the 
score  of  decorativeness  or  beauty,  but  because  in 
those  days  fresh  air  was  an  heresy  and  the  fear 
of  draughts  widespread. 

Beauty  and  raison  d'etre  should  be  considered 
37 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

together,  never  separately.  Instinctively  we  all 
feel  beauty.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  the  sin  of 
original  ignorance.  We  are  all  of  us  born  learned. 
Each  of  us  comes  into  this  world  with  a  set  of 
personal  faculties,  and  inherits  at  birth  the  accu- 
mulated intelligence  and  knowledge  of  his  ances- 
tors. The  man  that  has  in  him  the  appreciation 
of  a  sunset  has  it  also  in  him  to  appreciate  the 
same  sunset  when  put  on  canvas.  To  know  beauty 
is  to  know  art.  Yet  only  a  few  are  able  to  create 
beauty.  A  lamentably  small  number  can  piece 
together  the  squares  that  go  to  make  up  the 
mosaic  or  can  aptly  juxtapose  the  tints  and  colours 
that  constitute  a  chromatic  ensemble.  They  know 
a  well-set  .stage  when  they  see  it  set,  but  are 
helplessly  incapable  of  setting  it. 


38 


XV.  GOTHIC  TAPESTRY  CHAIR 

Dead  wood  and  faded  fabrics  contain  an  inspiration 


XVI.  EMPIRE  CHAIR 

A  man's  chair  must  be  explicative  of  the  personage  it  supports 


XVII.  RENAISSANCE  CHAIR 
A  chair  may  be  stiff-kneed  and  unsociable 


CHAPTER   III 
GUESSING  AND  KNOWING 

HE  letters  patent  granted  to  the 
guild  of  cabinet  makers  of  Paris  in 
the  year  1645  provided  that  all 
aspiring  to  the  certificate  of  master 
workman  were  to  appear  before  a 
jury  of  ten,  picked  from  among  the  masters  of  the 
brotherhood,  and  that  after  making  known  to 
them  the  extent  of  his  experience  he  was  to  estab- 
lish himself  in  the  home  of  one  of  the  jurors,  and 
there  construct  some  article  of  furniture  of  a 
character  and  style  imposed  by  the  jurors. 

If  upon  completion  the  work  was  not  adjudged 
a  chef  d'ceuvre  the  candidate  was  subjected  to  a 
fine  of  ten  crowns  and  the  labour  of  his  hands 
burnt  in  public  in  front  of  his  shop.  The  guild 
of  cabinet  makers  enjoyed  the  further  privilege  of 
denying  to  any  not  adjudged  master  by  the  guild 
the  right  to  construct,  sell,  or  distribute  in  the 
territory  of  Paris  anything  pertaining  to  the  art 
of  cabinetry  or  furniture  making. 
This  regulation  was  an  inheritance  based  upon  a 
39 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

practice  of  three  hundred  years  and  assured  that 
none  but  those  qualified  and  of  proven  ability 
devoted  themselves  to  the  work  of  making  or 
selling  furniture. 

It  is  regrettable  that  a  restriction  of  this  char- 
acter and  sort  no  longer  exists  and  that  any  suc- 
cessful modiste  or  carpenter  can  engage  in  the 
work  of  interior  decoration  without  previous  knowl- 
edge or  preparation.  It  has  become  a  fad  to  go 
in  for  the  making  of  hangings,  the  designing  of 
furniture,  and  the  general  composition  of  interiors. 
It  is  to  be  regretted,  however,  that  too  many 
among  those  who  play  this  game  have  no  knowl- 
edge of  the  cards  with  which  it  is  played,  and 
enter  into  it  solely  under  the  impulse  of  financial 
profit.  From  a  certain  point  of  view,  it  is  grati- 
fying to  find  an  art  which,  owing  to  the  role  it 
fulfils  in  our  life,  is  the  only  one  indispensable, 
enlisting  so  many  in  its  cause.  In  the  assembling 
of  such  a  number  of  intentions  and  ideas,  varying 
as  to  the  means  but  in  accord  as  to  the  end,  there 
must  result  an  outspreading  and  full  blossoming  of 
the  cause  which  true  artists  have  at  heart.  It  is 
regrettable,  nevertheless,  that  the  newest  recruits 
in  the  field  lack  knowledge  and  sometimes  con- 
science and  faith  and  fail  to  realize  that  to  be  a 
decorator  and  creator  of  meubles  as  much  prepa- 
40 


GUESSING   AND    KNOWING 

ration  and  as  much  knowledge  is  required  in  1916 
as  was  required  in  1645  and  for  three  hundred 
years  before.  The  present  is  the  age  of  the  ap- 
proximate, the  startling,  and  there  is  a  certain 
bravado  about  avoiding  the  "has-been"  and  at- 
tempting the  "  may-be,"  which  because  of  this 
lack  of  preparation  generally  ends  by  being  the 
preposterous.  The  majority,  like  the  child  who 
generously  studs  his  composition  with  ink  splashes 
in  order  to  hide  his  uncertain  spelling,  conceal  their 
shortcomings  and  ignorance  by  the  introduction  of 
some  element  which  they  imagine  to  be  diverting. 
We  have  had  empty  paintings  in  which  there  was 
this  amusing  note;  formless  sculpture  with  an 
amusing  substance;  prosaic  rooms  decorated  with 
an  amusing  fabric;  amusing  chairs;  amusing  cush- 
ions,—  all  so  amusing  as  to  be  funereal.  It  is  to 
art  what  a  pun  is  to  a  witticism,  and  serves  but 
to  hide  the  inability  of  those  who  make  use  of  it 
to  create  that  which  is  substantially  good  and 
reasonably  beautiful. 

The  duty  of  the  conscientious  workman  in  art 
and  in  everything  else  is  to  advance.  It  is  a  sign 
of  decadence  and  of  impotency  not  to  be  able  to 
make  use  of  the  newly  discovered  means  which 
the  progress  of  the  times  has  provided.  The 
telephone,  the  modern  system  of  electric  lighting, 
41 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

the  development  of  one  thousand  and  one  agencies 
of  comfort  and  increased  luxury,  should  find  an 
echo  in  furniture  and  interior  trappings  which 
reflect  the  spirit  of  the  times;  and  the  age  of  the 
automobile  and  of  aerial  navigation  should  mani- 
fest itself  in  more  appropriate  furniture  language 
than  is  apparent  in  Assyrian  styles  from  Vienna, 
Directoire  styles  from  Munich,  and  Louis-Philippe 
atrocities  from  the  department  stores. 

It  is  because  of  this  lack  of  study  and  prepa- 
ration, this  lack  of  thought  as  to  the  object  and 
purpose  and  general  significance  of  the  furniture 
and  interior  decoration  of  the  present  day,  that  it 
falls  so  far  below  the  output  of  earlier  days  when 
only  master  workmen  were  permitted  to  create. 
One  might  look  with  tolerance  upon  the  product 
of  these  untaught  decorators,  which,  because  it 
stirs  neither  the  mind  nor  the  heart,  is  doomed  to 
die  almost  before  it  is  born,  were  it  not  that  these 
inexperiences  befog  the  vision  and  poison  the 
taste  of  the  uneducated  public,  which  is  precisely 
the  public  which  needs  most  to  be  converted. 

Another  reproach  to  be  laid  at  the  door  of  these 
amateurs  is  that  they  are  too  often  imbued  with 
the  belief  that  the  essential  thing  is  to  create  an 
effect.  They  strive  to  make  an  ensemble  fit  to  be 
painted  instead  of  something  fit  to  live  in.  This 
42 


XIX.  EMPIRE  DESK  CHAIR 

A  chair  must  be  designed  with  the  idea  that  its  chief  object  is 
to  accommodate  a  human  body 


XX.  EARLY  EMPIRE  ARM  CHAIR 

A  chair  that  is  built  to  please  the  eye  alone  has  fulfilled  but  part 
of  its  mission 


XXI.  LOUIS  XVI   BERGERE 

Even  when  the  covering  is  of  Beauvis  or  Aubusson  tapestry 
anatomical  considerations  should  govern  its  structure 


GUESSING   AND    KNOWING 

tendency  toward  the  spectacular,  the  pictorial,  the 
colour  note,  would  be  permissible  in  the  designing 
of  an  environment  to  be  endured  for  a  matter  of 
minutes  or  hours,  but  when  the  background  is 
one  that  must  enfold  and  surround  the  victim  for 
years,  and  sometimes  for  a  lifetime,  the  first  con- 
sideration should  be  comfort,  harmony,  and  rest- 
fulness,  and  not  flamboyancy  or  theatrical  ism. 
The  art  of  the  moUlier  —  which  is  a  better  sound- 
ing word  than  furniture  making  —  is  of  such 
importance  that  it  may  not  be  studied  in  detail 
without  involving  the  analysis  of  decorative  art  in 
its  entirety.  It  is  an  art  which  is  also  a  metier 
and  craft,  and  those  who  engage  in  it  should  not 
do  so  without  understanding  the  one  and  mastering 
the  other. 

Decorative  art  is  difficult  and  complex,  and 
requires  not  only  gifts  of  invention  and  of  taste, 
but  profound  technical  knowledge.  It  is  not  an 
art  based  upon  imagination  only,  but  one  made 
also  of  material  realization.  The  decorator  must 
not  only  possess  the  qualities  of  an  artist  and 
poet;  he  must  besides  rely  on  a  sound  common 
sense,  a  positive  sense  of  the  practical,  and  a 
sound  technique. 

Decorative  art  is  a  composite  of  daring  and 
restraint,  of  enthusiasm  and  wisdom,  of  imagina- 
43 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

tion  and  of  science,  of  a  little  madness  and  of  a 
great  deal  of  reason.  It  is  not  an  idealistic  art, 
but  a  material  and  a  realistic  art  requiring  to  be 
thought  out  with  minuteness  by  reason  of  the 
ever  recurring  difficulties  of  expression.  The  deco- 
rator sees  his  dream  balanced  by  reality.  His 
conception  continuously  feels  the  brake  put  on  by 
practice;  the  thought  is  enslaved  by  traditional 
laws  of  matter,  usage,  and  destination. 

A  decorative  ensemble  involves  the  architectural 
disposition,  the  composition,  colouring,  and  forma- 
tion of  the  meubles,  tapestries,  rugs,  lighting  fixtures, 
the  invention  and  arrangement  of  an  infinity  of 
units,  —  all  working  toward  the  realization  of  an 
harmonious  and  homogeneous  whole.  This  en- 
semble can  only  be  achieved  by  applying  two  dis- 
tinct systems  of  ornamentation.  First,  the  plane 
decoration,  that  is,  the  ornamentation  of  flat  sur- 
faces; and  the  other,  which  has  to  do  with  the 
creation  of  forms  and  volumes  and  the  erecting 
and  disposition  of  chairs,  tables,  and  other  objects 
of  three  dimensions. 

Plane  decoration  is  purely  ornamental  and  has 
no  destination  of  actual  utility.  It  is  an  agreeable 
complement,  but  "not  an  indispensable  complement. 
In  a  chair,  as  in  all  meubles,  or  objects  of  furniture, 
the  essential  point  is  form  and  volume  and  not 
44 


GUESSING   AND    KNOWING 

ornamentation.  Ornament  is  merely  recreation; 
form  is  a  necessity.  Whereas  the  decoration  of 
surfaces  is  obtained  by  the  distribution  of  lines 
and  coloured  masses,  the  creation  of  form  requires 
rules  of  equilibrium,  proportion,  and  last  but  not 
least,  of  usage  or  purpose.  The  one  must  satisfy 
under  the  one  and  sole  aspect,  the  other  under  an 
infinity  of  varying  aspects. 

Plane  decoration  will  permit  a  much  greater 
latitude  and  a  freer  indulgence  of  the  artist's 
fancy  and  daring.  Much  easier  to  treat  by  reason 
of  expressing  itself  by  simpler  and  more  direct 
processes,  it  frequently  yields  a  maximum  of 
effects,  though  engaging  a  minimum  of  means. 
In  this  field  ignorance  has  a  chance  to  stumble 
upon  accidental  discoveries.  Here  the  eye  alone 
labours,  but  for  the  creation  of  forms,  not  only 
the  eye  but  the  mind  as  well  is  called  to  contribu- 
tion. Arithmetic  plays  as  great  a  r61e  in  the 
creation  of  a  chair  as  does  drawing,  and  this  is 
where  the  decorator  approaches  the  architect  much 
more  than  he  does  the  sculptor. 

After  a  period  of  incubation,  during  which  the 
artist  thinks  out  his  work,  he  arrives  at  the  idea 
of  it.  This  having  become  fixed  in  his  mind,  he 
must  proceed  with  the  material  labour  of  giving 
it  form.  In  passing  from  spirit  to  matter,  he  will 
45 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

strive  to  copy  his  dream.  Unlike  the  writer  who 
has  his  pen,  the  orator  who  has  his  voice,  the 
musician  who  has  his  violin,  the  painter  who  has 
his  brush,  or  the  sculptor  who  has  his  fingers,  the 
decorator  cannot  himself  translate  and  express  that 
which  his  soul  has  conceived.  He  must  appeal  to 
others  for  the  materialization  of  his  vision,  the 
conversion  of  his  dream  into  reality.  Here  again 
he  resembles  the  architect,  who  cannot  himself 
construct  and  erect  the  edifices  which  he  imagines 
and  designs.  The  product  of  the  decorator  is  less 
monumental  than  that  of  the  architect,  but  not 
less  difficult,  and  while  he  may  not  carve  his  own 
mouldings,  weave  his  own  tapestries,  or  chisel  his 
own  bronze,  he  should  know  how  they  are  carved, 
woven,  chiselled,  and  be  familiar  with  the  technique 
of  each  of  the  processes  used  in  materializing  his 

conception. 

Chairs  and  Chairs 

Nothing  holds  as  large  a  place  in  our  lives  as 
the  objects  with  which  we  people  the  rooms  in 
which  we  live.  Each  chair  and  table  and  article 
of  furniture  has  a  subtle  relativeness  to  our  every- 
day acts.  They  belong  to  the  family,  help  us  to 
comfort,  and  in  a  measure  reflect  if  not  our'moods, 
at  least  our  habits  and  most  of  our  attitudes. 
The  furniture  of  a  man's  room  reflects  the  char- 
46 


XXII.  ARM  CHAIR  FRAME 

It  is  indispensable  for  all  seats  to  be  solidly  established 


GUESSING   AND    KNOWING 

acter  of  the  man,  and  what  is  said  here  of  men 
applies  even  more  forcibly  to  women.  A  little 
of  our  spirit,  and  even  of  our  hearts,  enters  into 
these  adjuncts  to  our  daily  existence  and  occupa- 
tions. They  are  companions  of  our  joy  and  mute 
witnesses  of  our  griefs,  and  each  in  turn  evokes  a 
flood  of  memories. 

Very  marvellous  is  the  impressibility  of  material 
surroundings  to  the  lives  which  are  lived  among 
them.  We  build  or  we  furnish  a  house  to  suit  our 
own  comfort  and  taste  as  it  pleases  us.  We  die 
and  our  sons  inherit  us  and  live  their  lives  and 
maybe  add  rooms  and  furniture  in  accordance 
with  their  comfort  and  their  taste,  and  so  genera- 
tion follows  generation;  and  meanwhile,  from  all 
these  lives  something  impalpable  has  been  passing 
into  the  very  walls,  and  in  some  mysterious  way 
the  whole  house  has  become  a  reservoir  of  per- 
suasive, even  compelling  influence.  One  is  con- 
scious of  this  influence  even  in  an  old  house  in 
which  we  dwell  for  a  while  as  strangers  and  to 
which  we  are  bound  by  no  ancestry  of  occupation. 

How  much  more  powerful  must  that  influence 
be  when  the  house  we  inherit  has  been  lived  in  by 
men  and  women  of  our  own  blood  for  centuries! 
Who  has  not  vibrated  to  the  stored  courage  in  a 
noble  name?  An  old  house  that  has  been  bravely 
47 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

and  beautifully  lived  in  has  just  this  power  of 
bracing  influence;  and  for  a  man  who  possesses 
such  an  old  home,  to  come  back  to  it  is  to  connect 
himself  with  a  hundred  currents  of  energizing  and 
ancestral  force. 

What  is  more  personal,  more  representative, 
than  a  chair  or  fauteuil?  Among  all  meubles  it 
offers  probably  the  greatest  inspiration,  just  as  it 
offers  the  greatest  difficulties.  All  furniture  the 
purpose  of  which  is  to  provide  a  means  for  the 
assumption  of  a  sitting  position,  is  subjected  to  a 
principle  imposed  by  a  physical  attitude.  It  is 
not,  therefore,  the  use,  which  never  varies,  but  the 
destination  and  the  character  and  requirements  of 
the  occupant  which  permit  of  the  endless  diver- 
sities of  construction  and  design.  Fundamentally, 
there  may  not  be  a  difference  in  the  actual  act  of 
sitting  as  performed  by  an  emperor  or  a  clown. 
There  will  be  a  tremendous  difference  between  the 
throne  and  the  stool.  Except  in  the  case  where 
they  form  part  of  the  architecture  of  the  room,  as 
for  instance  in  the  stalls  of  cathedrals,  or  the 
seats  in  an  auditorium,  chairs  have  a  position  and 
aspect  more  varied  perhaps  than  any  object  of 
mobilier  which  like  them  have  no  predetermined 
character.  A  bed,  a  clothes  chest,  remain  per- 
manently in  the  attitude  and  on  the  spot  which 
48 


XXIII.  BOUDOIR  ARM  CHAIR 

The  difficulties  in  assembling  the  various  component  members 
of  a  chair  grow  as  the  chair  departs  from  the  straight  line 


GUESSING   AND    KNOWING 

they  logically  occupy,  and  consequently  are  never 
perceived  in  any  changed  aspect.  Chairs,  however, 
are  moved  here  and  there,  disposed  in  profile  or 
from  behind  or  turned  about  and  changed  in  their 
relation  to  each  other  and  to  the  rest  of  the  ap- 
pointments, and  for  this  reason  have  their  appear- 
ance constantly  modified. 

The  lines  of  a  fauteuil  or  chair  and  its  apparent 
equilibrium  impose  a  serious  task  upon  the  designer, 
since  at  the  least  displacement  from  the  precon- 
ceived attitude  they  may  be  made  to  appear 
unsymmetrical. 

Besides  this,  the  very  service  which  we  expect 
from  meubles  clearly  designed  for  the  accommodation 
of  humans  in  a  sitting  posture  appears  to  doom 
them  to  a  sort  of  ambiguous  attitude. 

When  they  are  unoccupied  they  are  incomplete. 
They  seem  to  await  the  performance  of  a  duty  or 
function.  When  they  are  occupied  much  of  their 
lines  and  proportions  is  hidden.  They  either 
appear  naked  or  overloaded.  There  is  in  this 
peculiarity  a  difficulty  which  many  architects  fail 
to  solve.  One  must  on  the  one  hand  give  to  his 
chair  a  comfortable  aspect  and  yet  must  so  arrange 
his  skeletoning  and  scaffolding  so  that  the  chair 
when  occupied  will  still  show  lines  and  supports 
that  satisfy  both  logic  and  harmony.  A  chair 
49 


DECORATIVE  ELEMENTS  IN  ARCHITECTURE 

must  be  designed  with  the  idea  that  its  chief 
object  is  to  accommodate  a  human  body.  Certain 
Greek  and  Roman  chairs  which  have  come  down 
to  us  are  wonderful  examples  of  the  concern  of  the 
designer  for  this  essential  requisite.  It  is  as 
necessary  to-day  for  the  designer  of  a  chair  to 
proceed  from  an  anatomical  conception  of  a  chair's 
occupant  as  it  was  two  thousand  years  ago. 

The  conception  of  a  seat,  no  matter  what  par- 
ticular flavour  the  spirit  of  the  age,  the  country  of 
origin,  or  the  customs  of  its  occupants  have  given 
it,  must  be  analyzed  in  every  detail  and  constructed 
upon  formulae  based  upon  a  precise  technique. 
From  the  abstract  idea  to  the  full  realization,  a 
seat  will  develop  problems  for  the  solution  of 
which  not  only  good  sense  and  good  taste  are 
required  but  deep  knowledge.  The  closer  the 
union  between  rationalism,  comfort,  and  beauty, 
the  greater  the  labour  in  drawing  and  plans, 
cross-section,  projection,  design,  assemblage,  and 
ornamentation.  The  very  texture  of  the  wood  will 
furnish  matter  for  consideration.  A  chair  that  is 
built  to  please  the  eye  alone  has  fulfilled  but  part 
of  its  mission.  Unfortunately  too  many  chairs 
are  built  with  this  consideration  of  appearance 
predominating.  Chairs  that  are  made  to  sit  in 
should  take  into  account  the  exact  measurement 
50 


XXIV.  ENGLISH  HALL 

A  decorative  ensemble  involves  the  architectural  disposition 
the  composition,  colouring,  and  formation  of  the  meubles,  tapes- 
tries, rugs,  lighting  fixtures,  the  invention  and  arrangement  of 
an  infinity  of  units,  all  working  toward  the  realization  of  an 
harmonious  and  homogeneous  whole 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

like  buttresses,  has  need  of  every  rung  and  every 
inch  of  counterbalancing  curve  of  its  spine  to 
accomplish  its  mission  of  stability  and  force.  One 
of  the  chief  considerations  lies  in  the  study  of  the 
texture  of  the  wood  itself.  The  chair  architect 
will  not  be  satisfied  with  his  drawing  of  his  chair, 
but  will  insist  when  the  same  drawing  comes  to 
the  point  of  materialization  in  wood,  that  the 
craftsman  entrusted  with  the  work  will  be  guided 
by  the  grain  of  the  wood,  and  will  not  juxtapose 
two  fragments  in  which  the  filaments  run  in 
opposing  directions. 

The  difficulties  in  assembling  the  various  com- 
ponent members  of  a  chair  grow  as  the  chair 
departs  from  the  straight  line.  The  more  curva- 
ture there  is,  the  more  necessity  exists  for  the 
strengthening  all  the  joints  and  elbows.  The 
slimness  frequently  given  to  the  legs  of  a  chair  must 
be  paid  for  in  an  added  thickness  at  the  waist  of 
the  chair,  but  this  obesity  is  easily  masked  by 
bringing  down  the  fabric  with  which  the  chair 
seat  is  covered  over  a  portion  of  the  wood  con- 
stituting the  skeleton  of  the  seat,  thus  making 
it  appear  one  half  or  one  third  even  of  its  real 
thickness. 

The  fact  that  most  of  the  wooden  carcass  of 
chairs  is  covered  over  with  textiles  of  some  de- 
52 


XXV.  LOUIS  XIV  MORNING  ROOM 
The  furniture  of  a  man's  room  reflects  the  character  of  the  man 


GUESSING   AND    KNOWING 

scription,  or  with  leather,  limits  the  area  which 
might  be  decorated  by  wood  carving.  For  this 
reason,  the  chief  merit  of  a  chair  must  always  be 
in  its  profile  or  architectural  construction.  The 
bare  skeleton  of  a  fauteuil  or  sofa  is  nevertheless 
susceptible  of  enrichment  by  carving,  but  this  must 
be  done  with  moderation  and  necessitates  the 
greatest  restraint  and  soberness.  Marquetry  and 
application  of  bronze  ornaments  may  also  be 
resorted  to  with  success.  The  wood-carver  who 
attempts  to  cut  an  ornament  into  the  apparent 
wood  of  a  chair  must  be  careful  that  this  decora- 
tion will  not  lap  over  a  joint,  since  the  difference 
of  texture  of  the  wood  and  the  line  of  cleavage  will 
cut  the  decoration  and  mar  its  effect. 

In  the  matter  of  covering,  both  in  leather  and 
tissues,  the  artist  will  have  a  wide  range  in  which 
to  exercise  his  choice.  The  lavishness  observable 
in  the  leathers  illumined  by  artists  of  Cordoba 
during  the  Renaissance  has  not  been  maintained, 
but  leather  lends  itself  to  many  chromatic  treat- 
ments, and  the  effects  obtained  through  gilding  or 
staining  or  the  artistic  contrast  of  leathers  of 
different  shades  or  colouring  are  highly  decorative. 

The  covering  of  chairs  with  textiles  of  silk  or 
wool,  or  any  of  the  twenty  or  more  fabrics  in 
current  use,  does  not  present  the  difficulties  that 
53 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

leather  does.  All  that  is  necessary  is  to  select  a 
pattern  that  will  not  clash  when  disposed  in  two 
directions.  A  high  form  of  ornamentation  consists 
of  weaving  the  material  to  fit  the  space  which 
must  be  covered,  thus  making  the  ornament  fit  the 
form  which  it  is  intended  to  decorate.  In  this 
consideration  it  is  an  artistic  solecism  to  cover  the 
seats  of  chairs  with  tapestries  containing  a  pic- 
torial motif.  A  tapestry  panel  representing  the 
idyl  of  "Sylvia  and  Clytandre"  is  meant  to  be 
admired  as  a  picture  and  not  to  be  sat  on. 

Of  late  there  has  been  a  reaction  against  the 
use  of  heavy  fringe  and  tassels,  and  a  sober  silk 
band  is  used  to  cover  the  junction  of  the  covering 
with  the  wood.  This  is  not  to  say  that  all  passe- 
menterie is  taboo,  but  its  use  has  been  abused  in 
the  past,  and  the  tendency  toward  simpler  appoint- 
ments is  in  the  right  direction. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  chairs  are  presented  to 
the  eye  from  every  angle,  and  as  frequently  from 
the  back  as  from  the  front,  it  is  extraordinary 
that  so  little  effort  in  the  past  has  been  made  to 
give  the  rear  of  the  seat  the  care  and  finish  be- 
stowed on  the  fore  part.  It  might  be  excusable 
to  cover  the  back  of  a  sofa,  absolutely  certain  to 
remain  against  the  wall,  with  rough,  plain  fabric, 
but  when  the  sofa  is  likely  to  be  disposed  in  the 
54 


XXVI.  CABINET— SPANISH  SCHOOL 

The  product  of  the  decorator  is  less  monumental  than  that  of 
the  architect,  but  not  less  difficult 


GUESSING   AND    KNOWING 

centre  of  the  room,  or  where  it  may  be  viewed 
from  behind,  common  sense  dictates  that  the  back 
be  finished  as  carefully  as  the  front,  and  as  much 
decorativeness  be  given  to  it  as  is  attempted  with 
the  rest. 


55 


CHAPTER   IV 
THE  INHERITANCE  OF  THE  PAST 

T  all  periods  of  civilization  there 
has  existed  a  keen  curiosity  of  the 
past.  Every  building  that  ever 
existed,  of  which  the  design  is  of 
architectural  importance,  owes  its 
form  and  its  detail  to  something  less  complete 
which  has  preceded  it.  Man  has  ever  felt  the 
need  of  reintegrating  life  into  what  was  death, 
and  this  effort  has  succeeded  only  because  there 
has  existed  to  guide  him  the  noble  remnants  of 
the  works  of  earlier  architects.  Nothing  that  is 
beautiful  ever  dies,  and  one  of  the  most  uncon- 
trovertible  axioms  is  that  all  art  which  is  not 
based  upon  tradition  is  doomed  to  death. 

Let  it  be  set  down  at  once  that  this  truth  is 
not  the  rallying  cry  of  the  reactionary,  or  even 
of  the  conservative  in  art,  but  rather  of  the  lib- 
eral who  has  observed  that  all  the  large  innova- 
tions, that  every  movement  which  has  had  some 
element  of  novelty  in  art,  have  been  always  the 
result  of  a  sure  and  orderly  development  of  tradi- 
56 


XXVII.  BOULE  CLOCK 


A  form  must  be  beautiful  in  itself.    The  artist  can  never  hope 
to  overcome  its  imperfections  by  means  of  applied  decoration 


THE    INHERITANCE   OF   THE    PAST 

tion  and  never  of  a  sudden  revolution  or  of  a 
volcanic  eruption  of  individual  genius. 

The  full  significance  of  the  word  "tradition" 
will  be  realized  by  some  such  definition  as  that  it 
is  to  artistic  progress  what  the  military  base  is 
to  the  march  forward  of  an  army. 

A  military  unit,  isolated,  and  which  has  lost 
touch  with  other  forces  and  with  its  source  of 
supplies,  is  in  grave  danger  of  failure  by  reason  of 
its  isolation.  If,  on  the  contrary,  this  unit  is.  in 
contact  with,  and  supported  by,  a  well-organized 
base  from  which  it  can  uninterruptedly  draw  food 
and  munitions,  it  will  have  every  chance  of  success 
and  be  in  a  position  to  contribute  effectively  to 
the  general  advance. 

It  is  the  same  with  art:  the  detached  isolated 
effort  will  remain  unproductive,  while  the  effort 
which  springs  from  a  base  of  sound  tradition  will 
move  forward  with  success. 

When  we  have  found  the  earliest  example  of  a 
special  architectural  feature  we  are  still  a  long 
way  from  the  root  and  inspiration  of  this  particu- 
lar feature.  Men  have  at  times  indulged  this 
cult  of  the  past  to  excess,  and  their  admiration 
for  things  that  no  longer  are  has  been  known  to 
blind  them  to  the  point  of  being  reduced  to  find- 
ing the  principle  of  art  solely  in  imitation.  This 
57 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

tendency  has  brought  many  recurrent  periods  of 
decadence,  because  although  imitation  does  bring  a 
valuable  element  to  art  —  the  element  of  education 
—  it  should  not  be  its  sole  guiding  principle. 

The  artist  or  architect  who  manifests  individu- 
ality in  his  work,  and  succeeds  in  giving  to  his 
period  some  new  element  of  variety,  is  subject, 
and  has  been  subject,  no  matter  how  individual 
he  may  seem,  to  the  environment  in  which  he 
lives,  and  is  by  reason  of  this  the  expression  of  the 
civilization  of  which  he  is  part,  and  of  the  milieu 
in  which  he  moves.  The  lessons  which  he  will 
have  learned,  the  visions  which  he  will  have  seen 
of  art  as  expressed  by  his  predecessors,  the  lan- 
guage, the  beliefs,  the  religion,  the  philosophy  of 
the  people  all  about  him,  the  very  air  which  he 
breathes,  must  affect  his  mentality  and  must  be 
reflected  in  the  work  which  he  executes.  His 
individual  development  will  inevitably  be  the 
reflection  of  the  general  development  all  about  him. 

Art,  therefore,  while  giving  free  rein  to  the 
imagination,  inventiveness,  and  originality  of  the 
artist,  imposes  upon  him  strict  rules,  which  genera- 
tions before  him  have  proven  to  be  salutory  and 
beneficial.  In  the  history  of  art,  ornament  is  the 
complex  application  of  simple  principles,  and  the 
result  of  conformation  perpetuated  by  tradition. 
58 


XXVIII.  CARVED  OAK  ROOM 

The  condition  of  beauty  is  made  up  of  many  elements 

The  first  of  these  is  symmetry 

[Transition    Gothic —  Renaissance  one-half  of  ceiling  shown 
—  each  panel  a  subject — each  picture  painted  on  canvas — 
ornamental  sections  in  low  relief  painted  in  colours] 


THE    INHERITANCE   OF   THE    PAST 

Among  the  innumerable  art  productions  which 
surround  us,  the  old  primitive  types  recur  con- 
stantly. They  are  the  basis  of  decoration  and 
will  live  eternally.  The  most  rabid  advocate  of 
originality  must  pause  before  the  wonderful  per- 
fection achieved  in  the  architecture  of  the  Greeks 
of  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  and  admit  that  here,  at 
least,  imitation  imposes  itself.  We  are  here  in  the 
presence  of  an  architecture  in  which  the  details 
are  deliberately  shaped  and  refined,  in  accordance 
with  an  acute  intellectual  perception,  to  produce 
and  present  their  most  complete  effects  upon  the 
eye,  in  which  every  detail  is  the  realization  of  an 
abstract  conception  of  order,  form,  and  proportion, 
and  in  which  the  hand  of  the  artist  has  been 
guided  by  reason  and  logic. 

The  condition  of  beauty  is  made  up  of  many 
elements.  The  first  of  these  is  symmetry,  which 
by  requiring  a  central  point,  around  which  the 
different  parts  are  disposed  in  a  predetermined  and 
regular  order,  brings  forth  a  condition  of  unity. 
No  edifice,  no  matter  how  vast,  or  how  various 
the  decorative  elements  used  to  embellish  it,  will 
be  absolutely  beautiful,  if  this  essential  quality  of 
unity  is  lacking.  Another  element,  no  less  essen- 
tial to  beauty,  is  form.  In  decorative  art  one  of 
the  principle  axioms  is  that  a  form  must  be  beau- 
59 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

tiful  in  itself.  The  artist  can  never  hope  to  over- 
come its  imperfections  by  means  of  applied  decora- 
tion. Form  is  the  principal  agent  of  expression 
because  it  carries  in  itself  the  imprint  of  the 
personality  of  the  artist  who  has  created  it. 

From  the  earliest  civilization,  nature  has  pro- 
vided the  chief  inspiration  for  art.  Never  can  we 
appreciate  sufficiently  or  admire  enough  the  in- 
finite resources  which  art  can  draw  from  nature. 

"Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field,  how  they  grow. 
They  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin.  And  yet 
Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  clothed  as  one  of 
them." 

The  Egyptians  went  straight  to  nature  for  the 
inspiration  of  their  chief  ornament,  the  lotus. 
The  Greeks  of  a  later  period  adapted  the  acanthus 
leaf  to  their  decorative  needs,  and  the  artists  of 
the  thirteenth  century  in  creating  the  gorgeous 
monumental  flora  of  the  period  were  altogether 
inspired  by  plant  life. 

It  is  not  enough,  however,  to  have  found  a 
model.  In  making  use  of  the  subject  which  nature 
provides,  the  artist  should  avoid  servile  imitation 
of  the  model.  He  must  not  take  the  body  without 
the  soul,  or  copy  the  letter  without  the  spirit. 
The  vegetal  ornament  must  be  interpreted  and  con- 
ventionalized. They  therefore  must  be  idealized 
60 


XXIX.  ENGLISH  CLOCK 

Another  decorative  element  typical  of  the  Greeks  is  the  flute 
or  furrow  with  which  they  channelled  their  columns 


THE    INHERITANCE   OF   THE    PAST 

and  the  flowers  adapted  to  existing  conformations. 
There  is  a  plastic  side  to  all  vegetal  growth,  and 
the  artist  inspiring  himself  from  a  flower  or  leaf 
must  take  from  it  its  typical  characteristics  and  the 
very  quintessence  of  its  lines.  Ornament  absolutely 
demands  stylization. 

Take  any  tree  in  foliage  and  notice  how  the 
extreme  branches  have  disposed  themselves  so 
that  the  smallest  twigs  and  shoots  can  breathe 
freely  without  crowding,  how  each  is  separated 
from  the  other  with  mathematical  precision. 

This  phase  permits  imitation,  almost  permits 
copy;  but  take  other  aspects  of  the  same  tree, — 
the  tortured  lines  presented  by  the  trunk  and 
gnarled  branches  of  an  old  apple  tree,  for  instance. 
These  will  offer  no  element  of  decoration  in  their 
outline  alone.  The  tree  may  present  a  picture  of 
desolation,  of  strength  and  suffering,  susceptible 
of  evoking  an  artistic  thought;  but  taken  as  the 
basis  of  an  ornament  it  is  not  available,  because 
of  its  lack  of  symmetry.  The  artist,  therefore, 
should  he  imitate,  must  transform.  In  taking  a 
growing  plant  or  flower  for  a  model  he  must  care- 
fully analyse  his  model  and  determine  its  exact 
constitution.  He  must  interpret  the  form,  and 
while  making  use  of  the  details  furnished  by 
nature,  must  modify  them  in  order  to  constitute 
61 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

an  ornamental  motif,  bearing  the  stamp  of  his 
personality.  Whereas,  in  order  to  transform  the 
outline  presented  by  nature  into  the  outline  to  be 
given  the  ornament,  he  will  find  it  indispensable 
to  study  the  law  which  governs  the  juxtaposition 
of  each  part  in  order  to  unite  them  and  separate 
them  in  accordance  with  logic,  he  must  note  the 
ensemble  of  the  plant,  its  attitude,  and  position; 
he  must  enter  into  its  details,  taking  first  the  stem, 
then  the  leaves,  their  shape  and  mode  of  insertion 
upon  the  stem,  which  he  will  find  never  depends 
upon  chance  but  is  always  governed  by  a  deter- 
mined law.  In  analysing  flowers  he  will  study  not 
only  the  blossoms  by  themselves,  but  their  mode 
of  groupment  and  their  various  aspects  as  they 
pass  from  bud  to  flower. 

In  adapting  the  lotus  and  papyrus  growing 
along  the  banks  of  the  Nile  to  the  decorations  of 
the  temples  of  their  gods,  the  palaces  of  their 
kings,  and  the  coverings  of  their  persons,  the 
Egyptians  were  ever  respectful  of  natural  laws. 
The  lotus  carved  in  stone  forming  the  graceful 
termination  to  a  column,  or  painted  on  the  walls 
of  a  temple  or  palace,  was  never  such  as  might  be 
plucked,  but  an  artistic  representation  adapted 
from  the  model  for  the  purpose  it  had  to  fill,  and 
yet  sufficiently  resembling  the  type  to  call  forth 
62 


XXX.  WATER  COLOUR  DRAWING  FOR  TAPESTRY 

In  taking  a  growing  plant  or  flower  for  a  model  the  artist  must 
carefully  analyse  his  model  and  determine  its  exact  constitution 


THE    INHERITANCE   OF   THE    PAST 

the  poetic  idea  which  it  was  sought  to  evoke  with- 
out shocking  the  sense  of  consistency. 

The  Greeks  also  were  always  close  observers 
of  nature,  and  although  they  did  not  copy  or 
attempt  solely  to  imitate,  their  designing  was  done 
with  the  model  provided  by  nature  held  constantly 
in  mind.  The  three  great  laws  which  we  find 
demonstrated  in  all  vegetal  growth  —  radiation  from 
the  parent  stem,  proportionate  disposition  of  the 
areas,  and  the  tangential  curvature  of  the  lines  — 
are  scrupulously  obeyed,  and  it  is  the  unerring 
taste  and  distinction  with  which  they  are  obeyed 
which  excites  the  admiration. 

The  first  notion  of  symmetry,  arrangement,  dis- 
position, the  distribution  of  masses,  and  the  for- 
mation of  patterns  by  the  equal  division  of  similar 
lines  were  probably  imparted  to  the  earlier  civili- 
zation through  the  art  of  weaving.  The  Egyptians 
do  not  seem  to  have  gone  beyond  the  geometrical 
arrangement,  and  it  is  very  seldom  that  we  find 
them  utilizing  other  than  straight  lines. 

The  decorative  elements  of  earlier  ages,  no 
matter  from  what  section  of  the  globe  the  examples 
are  drawn,  were  almost  exclusively  rectilinear. 
They  began  with  parallel  lines  of  various  thick- 
nesses and  drawn  at  various  intervals.  Later  the 
straight  line  developed  into  the  zigzag,  or  saw- 
63 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

tooth  outline,  and  this  broken  edge,  while  very 
simple,  succeeded  in  producing  an  effect  frequently 
very  striking.  In  its  next  manifestation  this 
saw-tooth  edge  became  the  chevron,  which  con- 
sists of  two  lines  in  zigzag,  repeated  in  parallel. 
This  design  shared  with  the  fret  and  various 
arrangements  of  diapers,  arranged  in  squares  or 
diagonally,  a  vogue  which  has  subsisted  to  this 
day.  The  cross  in  its  various  aspects,  such  as  the 
Greek  cross,  the  cross  of  St.  Andrew,  and  the 
Swastika,  was  not  only  used  as  an  emblem,  but 
also  as  an  ornament.  The  disposition  of  tablets, 
rectangular  or  square,  is  another  form  of  recti- 
linear ornament,  which  recurs  in  every  style  of 
architecture.  Of  the  same  character  are  the  square 
spaces  between  the  triglyphs  in  Greek  Doric 
temples  filled  with  thin  stone  slabs  and  called 
metopes.  Occasionally  this  tablet  takes  on  the 
form  of  a  flattened  pyramid,  and  becomes  known 
as  a  diamond.  Under  this  aspect  it  is  very  fre- 
quently found  in  Florentine  decoration.  The 
Greeks  and  the  artists  of  the  Renaissance  also 
used  caissons  or  compartments  framed  with  mould- 
ings of  which  the  sunken  interior  is  decorated 
with  sculpture. 

Another  decorative  element  typical  of  the  Greeks 
is  the  various  hollows  or  flutes  with  which  they 
64 


_____  •_— •- 

i,     ]        :ia»6fei  iJJ 


XXXII.  UNIVERSITY  CLUB,  REMODELLED  HALL  TO  PRIVATE 
DINING  ROOMS 

In  forms  of  two  dimensions,  the  chief  requisite  is  that  of  a 
pleasing  outline 


# — I 


XXXIII.  LIBRARY— EARLY  XVI  CENTURY 

An  ornamentation  can  be  symmetrical  following  any  number  of  axes 


XXXIV.  LOUIS  XVI   INLAID  DESK 

In   objects   having   three   dimensions   form  must  satisfy  two 
essential  conditions:  a  good  proportion  and  a  good  profile 


THE    INHERITANCE   OF   THE    PAST 

channelled  their  columns  as  well  as  other  struc- 
tural forms.  What  has  since  been  known  as  the 
Greek  key  or  fret  is  also  of  very  great  antiquity. 
It  appears  to  be  an  imitation  of  the  volute,  ren- 
dered in  straight  lines.  It  permits  of  many  varia- 
tions and  modifications;  as  many  as  eight  distinct 
variations  have  been  in  current  use.  Another 
favorite  ornament  based  upon  rectilinear  principles 
is  the  dentil,  which  probably  owes  its  origin  to  the 
imitation  of  the  lines  of  rafter  ends  projecting 
below  a  cornice.  The  effect  is  that  of  a  series  of 
square  blocks.  It  is  generally  used  to  break  up 
the  density  of  a  shadow. 


65 


CHAPTER  V 

PRINCIPLES  AND  ESSENTIALS 

"YT^  outlining  certain  general  principles,  it  might 
be  set  down  as  law,  that  all  works  of  archi- 
tecture and  of  decorative  art  should  possess 
fitness,  proportion  and  harmony,  all  of  which 
make  for  repose;  that  all  ornaments  should 
be  based  upon  geometrical  construction  and  that 
harmony  of  form  consists  in  the  proper  balancing 
and  contrast  of  the  Straight,  the  Inclined  and  the 
Curved. 

The  production  of  the  artist  must  not  clash  with 
the  idea  of  Movement,  or  the  idea  of  Speed,  or  the 
idea  of  Force,  or  the  idea  of  Equilibrium.  A  chair 
has  four  legs  because  five  would  be  too  many  and 
three  not  enough. 

All  movements,  no  matter  how  instinctive,  or 
derived,  can  be  reduced  to  two  or  three  funda- 
mental movements;  the  rectilinear  movement,  the 
circular  movement,  and  a  third,  which  appears  com- 
posed of  a  combination  of  two  movements;  the 
screw  or  spiral. 

Decorative  art  is  constituted  by  the  assemblage 
66 


PRINCIPLES   AND    ESSENTIALS 

of  conditions  which  can  be  resumed  under  three 
heads:  first,  form;  second,  relief;   third,  color. 

The  fundamental  principles  of  decoration  are 
Relief  and  Color. 

The  decorative  Artist  must  draw  his  ornaments 
from  his  imagination,  from  geometry  or  from  the 
works  of  man  or  nature. 

Decoration  is  either  inherent  to  Form  or  else 
superimposed  or  added  thereto. 

In  theory,  Form  can  be  divided  into  three  dimen- 
sions: height,  width  and  thickness.  Distinction  is 
made  of  forms  in  which  only  two  dimensions  are 
apparent,  height  and  width,  and  where  thickness 
has  no  particular  interest. 

In  objects  having  three  dimensions,  form  must 
satisfy  two  essential  conditions;  a  good  proportion, 
and  a  good  profile. 

The  first  principle  of  a  good  proportion  is  that 
one  of  the  elements  of  the  form  must  predominate. 

In  forms  of  two  dimensions,  the  chief  requisite  is 
that  of  a  pleasing  outline.  Here,  also,  the  inten- 
tion must  be  firmly  declared.  A  square  must  have 
its  sides  rigorously  equal  and  its  angles  exactly 
straight.  On  the  contrary,  a  rectangle  must  have  its 
length  and  width  very  different.  A  circle  should 
have  but  one  centre  and  an  oval  be  greater  in 
length  than  in  width. 

67 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

Added  to  these  essentials  must  be  the  quality  of 
stability.  Not  only  must  an  article  be  stable,  it 
must  appear  stable.  As  a  general  principle  it  is 
better  to  allow  the  form  to  remain  naked  than  to 
cover  it  with  ornaments  which  add  no  interest  to  it. 

There  are  three  general  methods  of  applying  dec- 
oration. The  first  is  to  represent  the  decorative 
elements  as  they  exist  in  Nature,  or  as  the  artist 
believes  them  to  exist.  The  treatment  of  these 
elements,  however,  demands  the  artifice  of  arrange- 
ment in  the  location  of  the  principal  motifs;  the 
balance  of  the  various  outlines,  and  the  pleasing 
distribution  of  masses.  Mural  paintings,  frescoes, 
tapestries,  etc.,  partake  of  this  method. 

The  second  method  consists  of  utilizing  natural 
elements,  but  placed  in  a  conventional  surrounding. 
The  principal  motifs,  for  instance,  can  be  outlined 
against  a  gold  background.  The  laws  of  gravity 
are  still  observed  and  the  figures  are  upon  a  solid 
base.  The  third  method  is  purely  conventional. 
The  motifs  retain  the  typical  characteristics  of 
form,  but  appear  applied  or  nailed  or  affixed  with 
or  without  background  and  without  apparent 
relief. 

Besides  the  models  which  the  vegetal  or  animal 
world  provides  to  the  decorative  artist,  he  has  at 
his  disposal  innumerable  objects  derived  from 
68 


XXXVI.  LOUIS  XV  CABINET 


If  the  surfaces  are  of  irregular  outline  in  the  sense  of  elevation 

the  same  inequalities  must  govern  the  divisions  and  correspond 

with  the  variations  of  the  form 


Ill  II  •  '•  fftltl 


XXXIX.  RENAISSANCE  DINING  ROOM 

Divisions  in  the  latitudinal  sense  are  only  optional  when  they 
divide  a  form  which  is  regular  in  outline 


PRINCIPLES   AND    ESSENTIALS 

human  invention.  In  making  use  of  these,  how- 
ever, and  bending  them  to  his  artistic  needs,  he 
must  exercise  his  artistic  sense.  In  arranging,  let 
us  say,  a  trophy  of  musical  instruments,  he  will 
naturally  select  those  of  which  the  outline  is  funda- 
mentally simple.  The  lyre,  the  tamboureen,  will 
lend  themselves  much  more  to  his  requirements 
than  the  trombone  or  the  bass  tuba. 

There  are  two  methods  open  to  the  artist  for  the 
ornamentation  of  form:  symmetry  and  irregularity. 
The  symmetrical  mode  can  be  either  absolute  or 
relative. 

When  absolute,  the  motifs  will  be  rigorously  alike, 
but  disposed  inversely  upon  each  side  of  an  imagi- 
nary line  or  axis.  When  the  Symmetry  is  relative 
only,  the  motifs  remain  similar,  but  the  details  no 
longer  are  alike. 

Let  us  take,  for  example,  a  rectangular  panel,  the 
cover  of  a  box. 

One  simple  manner  of  ornamenting  this  surface 
would  be  to  cut  out  from  some  already  executed 
decoration  a  rectangular  area  of  a  size  to  fit  this 
cover.  This,  however,  would  vitiate  the  principle 
that  the  artist  must  adapt  the  ornamental  forms 
which  he  uses  to  the  space  which  he  has  to  decorate. 
It  would  be  rather  in  the  nature  of  a  patchwork, 
and  not  decorating  in  the  truly  artistic  sense.  It 
69 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

could  as  well  be  applied  in  ornamenting  a  circle  or 
triangle,  or  any  other  form  besides  a  rectangle. 

Confronted  with  the  necessity  of  composing  the 
ornament  especially  to  fit  each  distinct  form  to  be 
decorated,  the  artist  having  this  rectangular  panel 
to  decorate  must  choose  to  do  so  either  in  a  sym- 
metrical manner  or  in  an  irregular  manner.  The 
symmetrical  manner  may  be  subdivided  into  Per- 
fect Symmetry,  Partial  Symmetry,  False  Symmetry 
and  Symmetry  upon  a  non-symmetrical  background. 

An  ornamentation  can  be  symmetrical,  following 
any  number  of  axes. 

Having  selected  the  mode  to  be  employed,  the 
artist  will  have  to  consider  the  division  of  his  sur- 
faces. Thus  the  general  division  of  a  rectangular 
panel  will  depend  upon  horizontal  or  vertical  lines. 
The  division  of  objects  which  have  been  turned, 
such  as  vases,  candelabra,  columns,  etc.,  must  be 
traced  according  to  the  cross-section  or  by  circular 
horizontal  lines.  Forms  that  are  flat,  but  of  a 
curved  outline,  such  as  dishes,  fans,  discs,  etc., 
must  rely  upon  divisions  that  are  concentric  or 
which  radiate. 

Divisions  in  the  latitudinal  sense  are  only  optional 
and  at  the  fancy  of  the  artist,  when  they  divide  a 
form  which  is  regular  in  outline.  If,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  form  has  a  profile  which  goes  widening 
70 


XL.  EMPIRE  ARM  CHAIR 

Decoration  is  either  inherent  to  Form  or  else  superimposed  or 
added  thereto 


XLH.  CEILING  PANEL 

An  ornament  happily  disposed  within  a  circle  cannot  be  applied 
equally  well  within  a  square 


XLIII.  CARVED  WOOD  PANEL  AND  DOOR 

If  the  decoration  involves  a  sequence  of  curved  lines,  rectilinear 
elements  used  sparingly  create  a  pleasing  contrast 


PRINCIPLES   AND    ESSENTIALS 

and  narrowing,  these  divisions  must  of  necessity  be 
unequal  and  one  among  them  must  be  chosen  'as 
the  dominant  one  and  emphasized.  It  is  an  artistic 
solecism  to  dispose  upon  such  surfaces  equal  divis- 
ions, since  they  must  of  necessity  clash  with  the 
unequal  profile. 

As  for  longitudinal  divisions,  they  can  only  be  at 
the  option  of  the  artist  when  they  are  applied  to 
forms  with  a  continuous  profile  or  to  surfaces  with 
outlines  that  are  regular  in  elevation;  each  of  these 
divisions  becoming  thereby  a  section  of  the  same 
nature  as  the  others,  as,  for  instance,  a  circle  within 
a  plate.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  surfaces  are  of 
irregular  outline  in  the  sense  of  elevation,  the  same 
unequal i  ties  must  govern  the  divisions  and  cor- 
respond with  the  variations  of  the  form. 

No  matter  what  form  of  division  is  adopted,  un- 
certainty must  be  avoided.  It  is  essential  to  affirm 
and  emphasize  a  perfect  similarity,  or  a  notable 
difference. 

One  of  the  chief  influences  in  the  application  of 
ornament  is  the  dominant  sense.  It  is  preposterous 
to  suppose  that  a  motif,  no  matter  how  artistic 
per  se,  can  be  adapted  indifferently  to  the  first  form 
that  presents  itself,  flat,  turned,  concave  or  convex. 
An  ornament  happily  disposed  within  a  square  can- 
not be  equally  well  applied  inside  a  rectangle  or  a 
71 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

circle,  nor  can  it  pass  from  a  flat  surface  to  the 
swelling  side  of  a  vase  or  column. 

As  a  general  principle,  each  ornament  must  be 
composed  and  studied  for  the  particular  form  which 
it  is  to  decorate. 

In  a  plain  surface,  such  as  a  rectangular  panel 
where  the  dominant  sense  is  vertical,  it  is  essential 
to  dispose  the  decorative  composition  following  ver- 
tical lines.  In  a  horizontal  panel,  the  lines  of 
decoration  will  be  disposed  in  a  horizontal  direc- 
tion. When  the  plane  surfaces  are  circular,  the 
decoration  must  take  on  a  curved  character.  The 
principal  lines  of  the  design  must  approach  the 
edge  at  a  tangent,  or  follow  it  in  a  parallel. 

Surfaces  with  double  curves,  concave  or  convex, 
exercise  a  particular  restraint  upon  the  decorator. 
Here  perfect  concord  is  required.  The  Greek  Egg 
and  Dart  and  the  Leaf  and  Tongue  mouldings  were 
designed  to  respond  perfectly  to  the  profile  to  be 
covered.  The  Egg  and  Dart  adapts  itself  marvel- 
lously to  the  quarter-circle,  whereas  the  Leaf  and 
Tongue  fits  the  talon.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
these  two  mouldings  have  remained  and  ever  will 
remain  the  highest  form  of  Classicism. 

Another  consideration  which  the  decorator  must 
keep  constantly  in  mind  is  the  error  of  vision  to 
which  the  eye  is  subject.  It  is  easy  either  to  flatten 
72 


H  Ij 

5  "if 

tU   "So 

<  1=5: 


x  8 

I! 


XLVI.  COLONIAL  HALL  RESTORATION 

It  is  easy  either  to  flatten  or  heighten  an  object,  at  least  appar- 
ently, by  decorating  it  with  lines  either  horizontal  or  vertical 


XLVII.  PAINTED  SCREEN 

When  the  symmetry  is  relative  only,  the  motifs  remain  similar 
but  the  details  no  longer  are  alike 


PRINCIPLES   AND    ESSENTIALS 

or  heighten  an  object,  at  least  apparently,  by  dec- 
orating it  with  lines  either  horizontal  or  vertical. 
A  rectangle  covered  with  pronounced  lines  running 
parallel  with  one  of  the  sides  will  appear  to  lengthen 
in  the  direction  of  that  side.  A  circle  ornamented 
with  parallel  lines  of  the  same  character  will  appear 
to  transform  itself  into  an  oval.  A  room  can  be 
made  to  appear  much  higher  in  ceiling  when  pa- 
pered with  stripes  running  vertically  than  when 
papered  with  stripes  running  in  a  horizontal  direc- 
tion. The  Greeks  were  so  conscientious  on  this 
score  that  in  designing  the  columns  of  the  Parthe- 
non, for  instance,  they  gave  to  them  an  almost 
imperceptible,  yet  readily-measured,  outward  curve 
from  base  to  necking;  the  departure  from  the 
straight  line  being  about  .07  of  a  foot  in  the  height 
of  the  shaft  of  the  column  —  32  feet. 

This  entasis  is  just  sufficient  to  correct  the  ten- 
dency of  a  straight-lined  tapering  column  to  look 
hollow  to  the  eye.  The  height,  nor  the  diameter, 
nor  the  number  of  vertical  hollows  or  flutes  which 
channel  them,  are  accidental.  The  Doric  Column 
of  the  best  period  of  Greek  Architecture  has  twenty 
such  flutes,  because  this  number  has  the  advantage 
of  bringing  a  projecting  edge  under  the  angle  of 
the  abacus,  and  the  centre  of  the  hollow  of  the 
flute  under  the  centre  of  the  abacus;  thus  giving  a 
73 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

relation  in  design  between  the  column  and  the 
abacus.  Nor  does  the  refinement  of  design  stop 
there.  The  sections  of  the  flutes  are  approximately 
elliptical.  They  are  such  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
emphasis  to  the  light  and  shadow  of  their  edges. 
Again,  in  order  to  counteract  the  known  tendency 
of  a  square  building  with  vertical  walls  to  look 
rather  larger  at  the  top  than  at  the  base,  the  axes 
of  the  Parthenon  columns  are  all  very  slightly  in- 
clined inwards  so  as  to  produce  a  pyramidal  effect, 
more  felt  than  seen.  The  same  study  of  optical 
illusions  caused  the  architects  of  this  noble  pile  to 
give  a  slight  upward  curve  to  the  lines  of  the  cor- 
nices and  steps  at  the  base.  The  necessity  for  this 
arose  from  the  effect  of  the  raking  lines  of  the 
pediment,  making  the  straight  cornice  under  them 
appear  hollow.  The  angle  columns  were  made 
slightly  thicker  than  the  rest;  as  objects  tend  to 
diminish  in  apparent  size  when  seen  against  the 
light,  as  compared  with  similar  ones,  not  so  pre- 
sented. 

The  conclusion  is  always  permissible  that  deco- 
rated form  possesses  only  those  proportions  which 
it  seems  to  possess,  the  influence  of  the  ornament, 
interior  or  exterior,  being  such  as  to  modify  en- 
tirely the  appearance  of  the  object. 
The  only  elements  of  decoration  are  the  straight 
74 


XLVI1I.  RENAISSANCE  HALL  TABLE 

The  artist  is  confronted  with  the  necessity  of  composing  the 
ornament  especially  to  fit  each  distinct  form  to  be  decorated 


L.  TRANSITION  GOTHIC  ARMOIRE 
EARLY  XVI  CENTURY 


LI.  ARMOIRE— TRANSITION  GOTHIC  TO 
RENAISSANCE  XVI  CENTURY 

Perfect  symmetry  above  and  false  symmetry  below 


PRINCIPLES    AND    ESSENTIALS 

line  and  the  curved  line.  On  general  principles  it 
is  difficult  to  employ  one  exclusively.  The  use  of  the 
straight  line,  for  example,  would  cause  not  only 
monotony,  but  stiffness;  whereas  the  use  of  the 
curved  line  alone  would  result  in  flabbiness  and 
loss  of  character.  If  a  composition  presents  a 
succession  of  parallel  straight  lines,  such  as  an 
entablature,  it  will  be  advisable  in  decorating  it,  to 
introduce  certain  curved  details,  to  bring  variety 
and  suppleness. 

If,  on  the  contrary,  the  decoration  involves  a 
sequence  of  curved  lines,  either  parallel  or  concen- 
tric, the  rectilinear  elements,  used  sparingly,  create 
a  pleasing  contrast. 

As  a  general  principle  in  a  decorative  composi- 
tion, the  straight  line  will  be  used  for  the  general 
structure.  It  will  provide,  in  addition  to  the  imagi- 
nary axis,  uprights,  supports,  frames  and  compart- 
ments, upon  which  the  curved  line,  more  graceful, 
can  rest  in  the  form  or  arches,  consoles,  etc. 

Another  consideration  is  the  decorative  scale 
based  upon  the  human  stature.  No  matter  what 
the  dimensions  of  a  building,  certain  elements  must 
always  retain  the  same  height,  as,  for  instance, 
steps,  benches,  tables,  etc. 

In  every-day  utensils,  the  same  consideration  is 
apparent,  as  witnessed  by  the  size  of  the  hilt  of 
75 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

a  sword,  the  handle  of  a  cup,  the  stem  of  a 
glass,  etc. 

Parts  of  decorated  objects  should  also  be  in  scale 
reciprocally.  The  rungs  of  chairs  of  the  same 
dining  set  should  correspond  to  the  mouldings  of 
the  table  of  this  set;  and  the  various  pieces  of  a 
tea  service  should  all  be  in  scale,  as  must  a  cup 
to  its  saucer. 

In  considering  the  degree  of  variation  and  repeti- 
tion and  the  disposition  of  an  ornament  repeated, 
care  must  be  taken  that  intervals  left  between 
ornaments  thus  repeated  differ  as  much  as  possible 
with  the  decorated  space.  The  spaces  between 
flutings,  for  instance,  should  not  be  of  equal  width 
to  the  flutes.  In  hangings  and  wall-papers  deco- 
rated with  stripes,  the  ornamented  stripe  should  be 
separated  from  the  next  ornated  stripe  by  a  plain 
stripe,  narrower  or  wider,  but  not  the  same  in 
width,  as  the  ornated  stripe. 

The  law  of  contrast  should  also  govern  the  dis- 
position of  moulding.  As  a  general  principle  in 
Architecture,  as  in  cabinet  work,  the  decorator  must 
avoid  the  juxtaposition  of  two  ornamented  mould- 
ings, and  always  be  careful  to  separate  them  by  a 
plain  band  or  fillet. 


76 


LII.  ORIGINAL  DRAWING  FOR  A  SALON 

All  works  of  architecture  and  of  decorative  art  should  possess 
fitness,  proportion,  and  harmony;  all  of  which  make  for  repose 


LI  1 1.  LOUIS  XVI  COMMODE 

The  first  principle  of  a  good  proportion  is  that  one  of  the 
elements  of  the  form  must  predominate 


m 


LIV.   DINING  ROOM  PROJET 

All  ornaments  should  be  based  upon  geometrical  construction 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ORNAMENT 

EFORE  taking  up  the  ornaments  based 
upon  curvilinear  principles,  it  may  be 
well  to  consider  a  few  conventional 
motifs,  characteristic  of  Greek  art,  where 
the  perfection  of  pure  form  is  developed 
to  a  point  which  has  never  been  surpassed. 

The  most  familiar  of  these  motifs  is  the  egg  and 
dart  moulding.  Although  some  attempt  has  been 
made  to  trace  the  origin  of  this  moulding  to  the 
lotus  bud  of  the  Egyptians,  the  well-known  ten- 
dency of  the  Greeks  never  to  be  realistic  in  their 
imitation  of  nature  rather  disposes  of  this  theory. 
The  best  Greek  moulding  ornamentations  imitate 
nothing.  They  represent  only  the  abstract  quality 
of  repetition  and  contrast. 

The  egg  and  dart,  and  the  leaf  and  tongue, 
which  may  be  considered  a  derivative,  demonstrate 
how  very  careful  the  artists  of  that  golden  era 
were  to  fit  the  ornament  to  the  form.  The  lines 
of  the  egg  and  dart  will  always  be  found  to  present, 
when  seen  in  elevation,  a  curve  similar  to  that 
77 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

formed  by  the  section  of  the  moulding  on  which 
it  is  carved.  The  leaf  and  tongue  was  evolved  out 
of  the  egg  and  dart,  out  of  this  consideration,  to 
wit:  to  meet  the  necessity  of  ornamenting  a 
symma-reversa  moulding,  or  one  having  a  double 
outline. 

Among  the  conventional  Greek  ornaments,  the 
nearest  approach  to  a  decoration  of  floral  character 
is  to  be  found  in  the  Antefixae,  which  in  the  Doric 
style  decorated  the  ends  of  the  ridges  between  the 
flat  tiling  of  the  roof.  These  show  a  series  of 
lobes  branching  from  a  centre  in  a  manner  sug- 
gested by,  but  not  imitating,  floral  growth.  This 
ornament,  which  has  become  known  as  the  Anthe- 
mion  or  Palmette,  can  properly  be  said  to  have 
outlived  in  popularity  any  other  motif  in  use. 
From  embellishing  the  remarkably  beautiful  frieze 
of  the  Erechtheion  it  has  come  down  to  be  the 
predominating  element  in  modern  temples,  which 
are  anything  but  Greek,  and  in  furniture  many 
times  removed  from  the  age  of  Pericles. 

The  manifestations  of  the  Anthemion  are  many 
and  varied.  Sometimes  it  is  shown  as  a  seven- 
branched  leaf  rising  from  a  curiously  shaped  bud, 
and  connected  by  a  semicircular  stem  with  an 
alternating  ornament  which  consists  of  a  circle 
surrounded  by  a  tri-foiled  leaf.  One  of  the  prin- 
78 


LV.  DIRECTOIRE  CONSOLE 

A   Directoire  console   in   which    the  ornament  designated  as 
"posts"  is  introduced 


LVI.  LOUIS  XVI  PANEL  FOR  WAINSCOTING 

The  use  of  various  units  assembled  together  as  in  the  trophies 
of  the  Romans,  demands  appropriateness  as  well  as  arrangement 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ORNAMENT 

cipal  variations  of  the  Anthemion  has  become 
known  as  the  honeysuckle.  In  this  the  petals 
curve  inwards  instead  of  outwards.  The  very 
classical  development  of  alternating  the  honey- 
suckle and  the  Palmette  Anthemion  connected  by 
scrolls,  as  in  the  pediment  of  the  temple  of  >£gina, 
marked  the  culmination  of  this  ornament,  and 
most  adaptations  since  have  closely  adhered  to 
this  revered  prototype. 

The  Greeks  did  not  originate  the  Anthemion, 
but  through  their  extraordinary  skill  and  sense  of 
refined  outline  they  developed  it  and  produced  a 
considerable  number  of  variants,  the  majority  of 
which  are  of  extreme  beauty  and  invariably  suited 
to  the  position  which  they  occupy.  The  original 
type  pictured  the  blossoming  of  the  various  shoots 
radiating  fanlike  from  a  single  stem.  In  its 
development  the  Anthemion  or  Palmette  sometimes 
assumes  the  form  of  a  complete  circle,  and  its 
spokes  or  branches  vary  in  number  from  three  to 
sometimes  as  many  as  eleven. 

It  is  symmetrically  constructed,  in  accord  with 
a  central  vertical  axis,  on  either  side  of  which  the 
branches  radiate.  The  hub  or  centre  of  the  radia- 
tion can  be  at  the  base  of  the  figure  or  higher  or 
lower  than  the  base.  From  this  can  be  derived 
three  styles  of  Palmette  corresponding  to  these 
79 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

three  different  radii.  There  are  six  well-defined 
varieties  possible  in  each  radius,  or  eighteen  recog- 
nized types  altogether.  This  can  be  further  com- 
plicated by  an  arrangement  of  two  similar  radii, 
one  over  the  other,  but  with  a  different  number  of 
spokes  or  off-shoots. 

The  central  axis  or  stem  is  always  the  dominat- 
ing ray.  It  must  resemble  the  others  which  flank 
it  on  either  side,  but  be  more  developed  or  accen- 
tuated. In  some  instances  this  idea  has  been 
developed  into  making  the  central  shoot  a  flower 
and  the  lateral  shoots  leaves.  The  centre  of  the 
Palmette  does  not  always  coincide  with  the  centre 
from  which  the  shoots  radiate,  and  can  be  occu- 
pied by  some  such  motif  as  a  rose,  discus,  patera, 
arrow-head,  leaf,  medallion,  mask,  etc. 

In  their  adoption  of  the  Anthemion,  the  Romans 
added  thereto  a  number  of  distinguishing  charac- 
teristics, —  such,  for  instance,  as  alternating  the 
Anthemion,  disposing  first  one  pointing  upwards, 
and  the  next  downwards. 

During  the  Byzantine  period,  and  later  the 
Romanesque  and  Gothic  eras,  the  Anthemion  was 
used  but  rarely.  It  reappeared,  however,  with  the 
Renaissance  together  with  all  other  forms  of  Greek 
classicism,  since  which  time  its  glory  has  remained 
undimmed. 

80 


LVII.  LOUIS  XIV  REGENCE  DOOR 

The  shell  which  had  already  had  its  hour  of  popularity  with 

the    Romans,   became  the  rage  during  the    Renaissance  and 

particularly  during  the  reigns  of  Louis  XIV  and  Louis  XV 


THE    DEVELOPMENT   OF   ORNAMENT 

Another  important  classical  enrichment  is  the 
guilloche,  which  in  its  incipient  form  suggests  a 
tendril  origin.  Specimens  of  this  ornament  have 
been  found  in  Assyrian  floor  slabs.  The  inspiration 
for  the  guilloche  can  be  readily  traced  to  braiding, 
but  at  a  later  period  than  the  Greek  there  was  a 
more  definite  arrangement  of  the  plait.  The 
guilloche  in  which  the  plait  is  single  recurs  in  every 
country  where  the  architecture  of  the  Renaissance 
penetrated. 

While  the  rectilinear  ornaments  are  of  greater 
antiquity,  those  based  upon  curvilinear  principles 
have  had  a  greater  vogue.  While  curved  decora- 
tions are  not  all  susceptible  of  geometrical  defini- 
tion, a  number  of  them  being  based  upon  sentiment 
or  pure  fancy,  it  may  safely  be  asserted,  neverthe- 
less, that  the  majority  follow  closely  the  trace  of 
geometrical  curves. 

Chief  among  the  curvilinear  ornaments  is  the 
spiral  (which  may  or  may  not  have  been  in- 
spired by  the  sinuous  flow  of  the  River  Mean- 
der), the  simple  and  the  double  volute  of  the 
Romans,  and  the  Greek  ornaments  designated 
as  posts,  suggesting  the  movement  of  waves.  In 
reality  these  are  only  a  variety  of  volute  succes- 
sively repeated  and  connected.  Another  ornament 
which  is  frequently  encountered  at  the  time  of 
81 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

the  best  development  of  Greek  and  Roman  art, 
and  which  may  be  said  to  be  eternal  in  its 
application,  is  the  sequence  of  small  beads  or 
pearls,  generally  designated  as  the  bead  and  reel 
moulding. 


82 


LVIII.  PANELLED  ROOM— GOTHIC 

The  human  face  and  form,   conventionalized  for  decorative 
purposes 


LIX.  LOUIS  XVI  PEDESTAL 

A  Louis  XVI  piece  revealing  Greek  and  Roman  ancestry 


CHAPTER  VII 

DECORATIVE  ELEMENTS 

HROUGHOUT  the  dark  ages  which 
followed  the  collapse  of  the  Roman 
empire,  art  and  artistic  appreciation 
seem  to  have  been  in  eclipse,  and 
the  architecture  and  decoration  of 
the  period  yielded  little  of  beauty  and  of  value. 
This  was  the  age  of  massiveness,  and  of  fantastic 
tortured  forms.  The  classical  enrichments  were 
principally  the  billet  and  the  nail-head.  It  was 
not  until  the  thirteenth  century  that  a  defined 
tendency  manifested  itself  in  that  the  artists  of 
the  period  abandoned  all  efforts  to  evolve  decora- 
tive features  out  of  their  imaginations,  and  directly 
went  to  nature,  which  they  copied  almost  without 
alteration.  Every  plant  or  leaf  found  its  way  into 
the  stone  churches  or  cathedrals  to  the  point  that 
the  architecture  of  the  period  has  become  known 
as  florid,  although  the  leaf  and  not  the  flower  was 
the  chief  inspiration.  A  study  of  the  architecture 
of  the  time  reveals  a  positive  riot  of  plant  life. 
The  cathedrals  of  France,  Belgium,  and  Great 
83 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

Britain,  those  of  Paris,  Rheims,  Amiens,  Meaux, 
and  Chartres,  are  all  of  them  resplendent  with 
this  Gothic  flora. 

The  inspiration  of  Gothic  curved  foliage  which 
went  straight  back  to  nature,  regardless  of  prece- 
dent, was  probably  found  in  the  suggestion  given 
by  the  half-opened  tips  of  the  hart's  tongue  fern, 
before  it  has  completely  opened,  and  while  the  tips 
are  curled  over  in  tight  knots. 

From  the  earliest  civilization,  the  decorative 
artist  has  closely  observed  the  growth  of  vegetal 
species,  and  not  only  the  full  blossom  but  the  root, 
bulb,  and  twig,  the  vine,  petal,  and  calyx,  have 
helped  him  in  designing  new  forms  of  ornament. 
It  is  easy,  for  instance,  to  trace  the  parentage  of 
the  culot,  which  is  a  close  reproduction,  conven- 
tionalized of  course,  of  the  peduncle  of  the  flower. 
The  petals  of  the  lotus  flower,  which  separate 
themselves  fanlike  in  all  Egyptian  decoration, 
emerge  from  a  culot  with  a  double  volute.  Another 
culot  serves  as  a  base  for  the  sacred  tree  of  the 
Assyrians,  while  in  Greece  the  culot  assumes  its 
definite  classical  shape  by  borrowing  some  of  the 
properties  of  the  acanthus  leaf.  Ordinarily  it 
presents  itself  under  the  form  of  three  leaves,  with 
tips  out-turned,  one  facing  and  two  in  profile. 

A  curious  preference  can  be  observed  on  the 
84 


LX  (a).  LOUIS  XIV  DIVAN 


LX  (b).  SPANISH  RENAISSANCE  DIVAN 

Variation  from  the  same  theme 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS 

part  of  artists  and  architects  of  the  Middle  Ages 
when  the  church  adornments  from  the  thirteenth 
to  the  sixteenth  century  are  studied. 

The  thirteenth-century  sculptors  and  decorators 
who  inspired  themselves  from  plant  models  invari- 
ably copied  and  adapted  the  vegetation  of  spring, 
whereas  during  the  fourteenth  century  we  find 
them  employing  fully  developed  foliage  and  vegetal 
life  full  grown.  In  the  fifteenth  century  the  vegeta- 
tion appears  withered,  and  is  translated  into  stone 
in  the  aspects  which  it  presents  in  late  autumn. 
The  sculpture  of  this  period  shows  the  larger 
specimens  of  vegetal  life,  and  inclines  toward 
realism  in  the  reproductions. 

Artists  of  the  more  recent  day  have  also  gone 
to  nature  directly  for  their  inspiration.  The 
British  pre-Raphaelites,  the  devotees  of  the  short- 
lived Art  Nouveau,  copied  slavishly  without  giving 
any  conventionality  to  their  designs.  We  have 
seen  the  legs  and  supports  of  tables  and  consoles 
assume  the  form  of  growing  stalks.  And  yet  in  the 
world  of  textiles,  wall  papers,  and  purely  chromatic 
decoration,  this  too  exact  copying  of  the  actual 
flower  or  leaf  has  frequently  netted  good  results. 
The  pineapple,  and  with  it  the  humble  artichoke, 
are  closely  related  to  certain  very  pleasing  effects, 
commonly  designated  as  Persian.  The  clematis, 
85 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

the  chrysanthemum,  the  rose,  the  carnation,  the 
laurel,  and  even  the  blue-bell  and  poppy,  all  have 
had  their  decorative  use,  if  not  in  stone  or  wood, 
at  least  in  fabrics,  prints,  embroideries,  and  tapes- 
tries, and  all  coverings  where  colour  besides  form 
can  be  resorted  to.  In  fact  it  is  difficult  to  con- 
ceive of  any  flower  that  has  not  at  some  time  been 
utilized  as  an  element  of  decoration. 

Although  turning  with  preference  to  examples 
found  in  plant  life  for  their  inspiration,  decorators 
have  ever  recognized  the  availability  of  subjects 
to  be  found  in  Zoology  and  the  fantastic  beasts  of 
ancient  mythology.  In  the  Orient  the  bull,  the 
lion,  the  eagle,  the  elephant  —  all  types  picturing 
strength  —  have  been  used  lavishly  as  monumental 
adjuncts.  The  Assyrians  were  particularly  partial 
to  the  winged  bull,  while  the  Egyptians  made 
frequent  use  of  the  lion,  the  ram,  the  hawk,  the 
vulture,  and  the  ibis. 

During  the  Middle  Ages  fantastic  beasts  were 
all  the  more  readily  employed,  since  they  gave 
free  field  to  the  imagination  and  partook  besides 
of  a  certain  religious  symbolism.  The  artists  of 
the  Romanesque  period  loved  to  perch  fantastic 
ravens  along  their  cornices.  Here  and  there  they 
also  used  grotesque  human  masks,  —  a  snail,  goat, 
and  other  strange  replicas. 
86 


LXI  (a).  TABLE  LOUIS  XIV  REGENCE 


LXI  (b).  TABLE  LOUIS  XIV  REGENCE 

Plus  ca  change  el  plus  c'esl  la  meme  chose 


LXII.  PANELLED  ROOM— GOTHIC 

An  attempt  at  stylization  in  which  Gothic  and   Renaissance 
elements  are  joined 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS 

The  Greeks,  absorbed  in  the  idealism  of  the 
human  types,  rather  neglected  animal  forms.  They 
did,  however,  create  various  monsters,  such  as 
griffins,  mermaids,  etc.  Occasionally,  they  have 
very  successfully  made  use  of  animals,  notably  in 
the  snouts  of  lions,  used  as  gargoyles.  The  Romans 
also  adopted  the  lion's  head,  and  in  addition  made 
use  of  the  eagle,  which  with  them  portray  the  idea 
of  triumph.  The  sculptors  of  the  Romanesque 
period  borrowed  a  great  many  decorative  themes 
from  the  Orient.  Of  such  are  the  lions  disposed 
symmetrically  on  either  side  of  the  sacred  tree  of 
the  Assyrians.  Several  monsters,  and  even  Satan 
himself,  entered  into  the  decoration  of  that  epoch. 
Fabulous  and  fantastic  beasts  ornament  the  base  of 
the  columns  or  serve  as  gargoyles  in  cathedrals  and 
other  structures  chiefly  of  monastic  character. 
Among  these  fabulous  animals  are  the  fabled 
aspic,  which  is  a  species  of  snake,  and  the  basilisk, 
which  has  the  front  part  of  a  rooster  and  ends  as 
a  serpent.  The  chameleon  is  represented  as  a  two- 
footed  creature  with  the  tail  of  a  crocodile,  while 
the  Capricorn  presents  the  body  of  a  goat  which 
trails  off  into  the  tail  of  a  dragon.  The  centaur 
is  of  more  ancient  antiquity,  and  is  based  upon 
Greek  mythology. 

The  varieties  of  chimera  and  of  dragons  are 
87 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

many,  chief  of  which  is  the  griffin,  which  partakes 
of  the  eagle  and  of  the  lion,  with  that  particularity 
that  it  is  always  equipped  with  two  pointed  ears. 
Other  creatures  of  the  tortured  fancy  of  the  time 
are  the  harpy,  the  hydra,  and  the  licorn  or  uni- 
corn, which  is  a  horse  growing  a  horn  in  the  middle 
of  his  forehead.  The  phoenix,  the  salamander,  the 
scorpion,  the  sphinx,  and  the  satyr  are  all  too 
familiar  to  need  description  here. 

Among  the  animals  belonging  to  the  world  of 
living  beasts  the  lion  and  the  eagle  recur  oftenest 
in  the  decoration  of  past  ages.  We  have  it  on  the 
best  authority  that  the  twelve  steps  to  the  throne 
of  Solomon  were  decorated  with  crouching  lion 
cubs.  The  republic  of  Venice,  and  before  that  the 
Assyrian  kings,  made  an  emblem  of  the  lion.  The 
gargoyles  of  the  Parthenon  have  the  lion  head  as 
their  motif.  The  dolphin,  represented  as  a  symbol 
of  the  ocean,  forms  the  almost  inevitable  basis  of 
the  decoration  of  fountains  and  enjoyed  a  particu- 
larly active  vogue  during  the  Renaissance.  The 
bee  was  in  use  long  before  Napoleon  adopted  it 
as  the  emblem  of  imperialism,  and  the  lamb  plays 
an  important  role  in  Christian  art.  The  bull, 
from  guarding  the  temples  of  the  Assyrians,  has 
been  passed  down  from  age  to  age  and  figures  in 
various  forms  in  religious  and  profane  decoration. 
88 


LXIII.  ORIGINAL  DRAWING  FOR  A  DRAWING-ROOM 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS 

One  of  these,  designated  as  the  bucrane,  is 
simply  the  horned  skull  of  the  animal  and  enters 
into  the  decoration  of  many  Roman  friezes  in 
which  is  represented  the  aftermath  of  sacrificial 
holocausts  to  the  gods.  The  deer,  the  horse,  the 
dog,  the  owl,  the  dove,  the  rooster,  the  peacock, 
the  elephant,  the  pheasant,  the  pelican,  enter 
frequently  into  the  scheme  of  decoration  of  the 
artists  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  fact,  it  may  be 
said  as  of  flowers  that  no  species  has  been  free 
from  reproduction,  in  an  adapted  form,  at  some 
time  or  other. 

While  the  human  figure  has  from  time  immemo- 
rial entered  into  the  decorative  scheme  of  archi- 
tecture, it  was  used  in  sculpture  and  statuary 
much  more  than  as  a  decorative  adjunct.  It  did 
not  begin  to  come  into  general  use  as  a  theme  of 
ornament  until  much  later  than  either  animals  or 
foliage.  This  adaptation  is  first  apparent  in  the 
last  half  of  the  twelfth  and  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century  when,  with  the  Gothic  flora, 
whole  series  of  saints  and  clerics  begin  to  appear 
affixed  as  pure  decoration  to  the  portals  of  cathe- 
drals. Much  earlier  the  conception  of  a  male  or 
female  figure  used  as  a  caryatide  or  column  found 
favour  with  the  builders  of  temples  and  public 
edifices,  while  the  head  alone  has  been  much 
89 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

utilized,  either  conventionally,  as  the  Greek  masks 
of  Tragedy  and  Comedy,  or  else  as  real  likenesses 
which  it  was  intended  to  fix  into  stone.  Objects 
which  are  the  handicraft  of  man  entered  into 
decoration  principally  as  attributes.  After  the 
victorious  campaign  of  the  Ca?sars  and  during  the 
time  of  Louis  XIV,  there  was  everywhere  a  pro- 
fusion of  implements  of  war  and  emblems  of  vic- 
tory. Helmets,  swords,  shields,  arms,  crowns, 
encumber  triumphal  arches  and  the  porticoes  of 
public  buildings.  During  the  Middle  Ages  the 
saints  and  martyrs  are  figured  with  their  palms, 
the  kings  with  their  crowns,  etc.  During  the 
Renaissance  much  use  is  made  of  Cupids,  with 
their  arrows,  cornucopias,  torches,  and  instruments 
of  music  and  of  the  arts. 

Among  the  products  of  human  industry,  ribbon 
should  be  mentioned  first.  One  of  the  most 
ancient  and  classical  mouldings  represents  twigs 
fastened  with  ribbon,  while  floral  garlands  are 
similarly  bound.  Often  the  ribbon  itself  is  orna- 
mented. In  the  Roman  Byzantine  period  the 
ribbon  itself  in  various  designs  of  interlacing 
recurs  with  great  frequency,  together  with  the 
ordinary  rope  or  cable  and  the  everyday  braid. 
The  humble  nail-head,  which  enjoyed  such  a  vogue 
during  the  Romanesque  period,  was  used  in  an 
90 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS 

enlarged  form  during  the  Renaissance,  when  the 
stones  of  innumerable  facades  appeared  geometri- 
cally sculptured  in  a  manner  which  suggests 
monumental  gem  cutting.  The  fronts  of  buildings 
ornamented  with  circles,  ovals,  squares,  and  rec- 
tangles cut  with  many  facets  are  perhaps  the 
reflection  of  the  methods  used  by  the  goldsmiths 
of  the  period  in  studding  their  caskets  and  other 
productions  with  precious  and  semi-precious  stones. 

The  feathered  fan  or  flabellum  which  was  the 
emblem  of  kingship  and  the  royal  attribute  of 
the  Ptolemies  of  Egypt  also  enjoyed  its  hour  of 
popularity. 

Draperies  are  also  used,  as  is  the  scroll,  which 
originally  imitated  the  roll  of  parchment.  The 
vase  and  urn,  which  entered  rather  late  into  the 
decorative  vocabulary,  became  violently  epidemic 
during  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV,  just  as  the  shell, 
which  had  already  had  its  hour  of  popularity  with 
the  Romans,  became  the  rage  during  the  Renais- 
sance and  particularly  during  the  reign  of  Louis  XV. 

Other  articles  which  are  of  comparatively  recent 
introduction,  but  which  have  had  a  lasting  vogue 
since  their  appearance,  are  the  torches  and  par- 
ticularly the  candelabrum.  We  find  to  this  day  the 
turned  shaft  of  the  candelabra  reproduced  in  every 
other  table  leg  and  grille  upright.  The  fasces 
91 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

originally  carried  before  the  Roman  consuls  have 
also  lived  throughout  the  centuries  and  will  prob- 
ably continue  to  fill  a  role  in  future  decoration. 

The  cartouche,  which  can  be  traced  to  the 
sacred  oval  ornamenting  the  earliest  Egyptian 
temple,  has  reappeared  under  the  Greeks  and  the 
Romans,  and  every  civilization  which  followed, 
found  use  for  it  wherever  it  was  found  necessary 
to  frame  an  inscription,  or  to  blazon  forth  the 
heraldry  of  some  king  or  conqueror. 

The  use  of  various  units  assembled  together  as 
in  the  trophies  of  the  Romans  demands,  of  course, 
arrangement  as  well  as  appropriateness.  In  the 
assembling  of  these  innumerable  objects  the  artist 
must  apply  his  sense  of  balance  and  proportion 
and  so  assemble  the  elements  that  compose  his 
"decor"  that  they  will  not  jar  by  reason  of  a  con- 
flict of  lines  or  an  incongruous  contrast  in  form. 

Two  instruments  of  music,  two  implements  of 
war  may  suggest  themselves  to  the  decorator  com- 
posing his  panoply  or  trophy,  but  there  will  be 
one  of  the  two  that  will  fit  in  better  than  the 
other  and  it  will  be  that  one  which  presents  the 
simplest  outline  allied  to  the  greatest  significance. 
This  one  he  must  choose.  Because  the  Romans 
made  use  of  the  prows  of  their  ships  of  war  as 
an  ornamental  motif,  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
92 


LXVI.  LATE  XV  CENTURY  TABLE 


LXVII.  ORIGINAL  DRAWING  FOR  A  BOUDOIR 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS 

modern  battleship  will  serve  the  same  purpose, 
and  whereas  the  fork  of  Neptune,  the  sandal  of 
Mercury,  the  helmet  of  Minerva,  the  lightning  of 
Jupiter,  the  crescent  of  Diana,  the  arrows  of  Cupid, 
the  lyre  of  Apollo,  the  thyrsus  of  Bacchus,  all  have 
furnished  a  theme  which  artists  have  developed 
through  all  the  ages,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  telegraph 
of  Morse,  the  sewing  machine  of  Singer,  the  phono- 
graph of  Edison,  or  the  automobile  of  Ford  could 
be  bent  to  a  similar  purpose. 


93 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  ART  OF  PENELOPE 

'HE  much  vaunted  superiority  of  the 
present  day  over  the  benighted  times 
when  men  were  reduced  to  killing 
their  fellows  one  by  one  and  with 
stone  mallets,  resolves  itself  into  the 
meagre  fact  that  we  are  a  little  better  off  as  to 
music  —  particularly  the  mechanical  means  of  ren- 
dering it  —  than  were  our  forbears  of  a  thousand 
or  of  a  hundred  years  ago. 

In  painting,  sculpture,  architecture,  and  in  every- 
thing except  the  purely  utilitarian,  the  world  has 
practically  stood  still.  Not  only  have  we  failed 
in  twenty-five  centuries  to  surpass  the  architecture 
of  the  Parthenon  and  the  sculpture  of  Phidias, 
but  we  have  not  even  equalled  it. 

The  same  might  be  said  of  painting,  had  any- 
thing come  down  to  us  from  the  brush  of  Apelles. 
As  it  is,  we  have  living  proof  in  Raphael  that  no 
material  improvements  in  the  art  of  painting  have 
been  made  within  the  last  four  hundred  years. 
There  is  one  art  manifestation,  however,  which 
94 


LXVIII.  GOLDEN  TRIPOD.    TAPESTRY  PANEL 
Part  of  decoration  of  Salon  of  the  Elysee  by  Galland 


LXIX.  LYRICAL  AND  HEROIC  POETRY 
by  Galland 


LXX.  PASTORAL  POETRY 
by  Galland 


THE   ART   OF   PENELOPE 

seems  to  have  not  only  lost  its  power  of  expression, 
but  its  following  as  well. 

In  the  golden  age  of  Pericles,  when  art  was  in  its 
glory,  the  weavers  of  pictured  fabrics  were  held 
in  high  honour.  The  writers  of  the  day  tell  us  of 
marvellous  tapestries  that  tented  the  roof  of  the 
Parthenon,  and  shielded  from  the  sun  the  gold- 
helmeted  head  of  Pallas  Athene.  Word  has  come 
down  to  us  of  fabled  hangings  that  stretched 
between  the  painted  columns  of  that  goddess's 
temple  and  on  which  were  pictured  heroic  scenes 
from  the  battle  of  Salamis. 

We  hear  of  a  funeral  pageant  held  by  Alexander 
the  Great  in  honour  of  his  friend  Hephaestion,  in 
which  Babylonian  tapestries  and  other  treasures 
valued  at  twelve  million  dollars  were  consumed 
in  the  sacrificial  pyre.  In  later  days  we  see  the 
peplum  of  Alcimene,  with  the  gods  of  Olympus 
woven  in  the  border,  sold  for  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  dollars;  and  the  aesthetic  Nero 
paying  four  million  sesterces,  or  one  hundred  and 
sixty-eight  thousand  dollars,  for  a  velarium  made 
of  Assyrian  tapestry.  The  Caliphs  of  Bagdad  and 
the  Ptolemies  of  Egypt  hung  their  persons  and  the 
walls  of  their  palaces  with  marvellous  trappings 
woven  on  the  looms  of  Memphis  and  Alexandria. 
Wherever  were  pomp  and  magnificence,  there  were 
95 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

tapestries.  They  were  the  apanage  of  kings  and 
conquerors,  to  be  flaunted  in  camps  and  throne 
rooms.  The  finest  wool,  silk,  and  silver  and  gold 
thread  were  employed  in  this  manufacture,  and 
cities  like  Tyre  acquired  fame  for  the  dyes  used. 

During  the  dark  ages,  that  awful  Byzantine 
period  when  for  nine  long  centuries  art  was  ban- 
ished from  the  earth,  the  art  of  tapestry  weaving 
suffered  the  fate  of  all  the  other  arts  and  was 
forgotten. 

With  the  reawakening  of  the  artistic  conscience 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  however,  tapestry  came 
into  its  own  once  more.  Thanks  to  the  encourage- 
ment of  aesthetic  grandees  like  the  Dukes  of  Bur- 
gundy, the  Medici,  the  Popes,  the  French  and 
Spanish  kings,  it  was  quick  in  regaining  favour. 
By  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  weavers  of 
Arras,  Lille,  Tournai,  Brussels,  Paris,  Bruges,  were 
everywhere  acclaimed.  For  nearly  two  hundred 
years  the  looms  of  Flanders  and  of  France,  to  say 
nothing  of  Spain  and  Italy,  were  busy  translating 
into  silk  and  dyed  wools  and  gold  thread  the 
cartoons  especially  drawn  for  them  by  Raphael, 
Mantegna,  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Titian,  Veronese, 
Rubens,  Teniers,  Coypel,  Le  Brun,  and  others  of 
lesser  fame. 

The  relative  value  of  painting  and  tapestry, 
96 


THE   ART   OF   PENELOPE 

even  at  that  period,  is  eloquently  demonstrated 
by  the  price  paid  to  Raphael  by  Pope  Leo  X  for 
the  ten  panels  of  The  Apostles.  Raphael  received 
ten  thousand  dollars  for  the  ten  cartoons,  and 
Peter  van  Aelst,  the  Brussels  weaver,  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  This  suite  is  now 
preserved  in  the  Vatican,  and,  although  much  of 
its  pristine  colouring  is  gone,  its  value  is  placed  by 
experts  at  one  million  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  A  much  less  famous  suite,  consisting  of 
only  four  panels,  the  Scenes  of  Opera  by  Coypel, 
sold  for  five  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  francs 
in  1900. 

Aside  from  its  value  as  a  work  of  art,  of  course, 
there  is  always  to  be  considered  in  a  tapestry  the 
intrinsic  value  of  the  gold  that  may  be  used  in  its 
weaving  and  the  value  of  the  time  devoted  to  the 
work.  While  it  probably  took  Raphael  less  than 
six  months  to  paint  the  cartoons  of  The  Apostles, 
it  took  Van  Aelst  and  his  assistants  four  years  to 
execute  them  on  the  high  loom.  The  suite  known 
as  The  King's  Story,  which  is  of  about  the  same 
size  as  The  Apostles,  took  ten  years  to  make. 

In  the  first  twenty-eight  years  of  its  existence, 
from   1663   to   1690,   the    Royal   Manufactory  of 
Gobelins,  numbering  two  hundred  and  fifty  weavers, 
only  turned  out  nineteen  high-loom  pieces. 
97 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

When  we  read,  therefore,  that  in  1656  the  cor- 
poration of  tapestry  weavers  of  Paris  decorated 
the  streets  along  which  the  processions  of  Holy 
Week  were  to  pass  with  eight  hundred  panels,  we 
can  form  some  idea  of  the  activity  which  the  art 
of  tapestry  weaving  had  acquired  in  the  years 
immediately  preceding  that  period. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
however,  a  period  of  depression  and  discourage- 
ment set  in.  Individual  ateliers,  unable  longer  to 
maintain  themselves,  sought  the  support  of  king 
or  state.  Brussels,  which  had  long  enjoyed  a 
merited  supremacy,  found  itself  surpassed  by  Paris, 
where  Henri  II  was  fast  gathering  the  best  weavers 
of  Flanders  to  his  court. 

In  1662  Louis  XIV,  following  the  worthy  example 
of  his  predecessor,  established  the  Gobelins,  under 
the  title  of  "Manufacture  Royale  des  Meubles  de 
la  Couronne,"  appointing  the  distinguished  and 
talented  Le  Brun  to  direct  it.  The  personnel 
numbered  two  hundred  and  fifty,  besides  sixty 
apprentices. 

A  hundred  years  ago  the  Gobelins  were  not  the 
sole  repository  of  the  lost  art  of  tapestry  weaving. 
The  Pope,  the  King  of  Spain,  and  the  King  of 
Bavaria  maintained  ateliers  in  Rome,  Madrid, 
and  Munich,  and  there  were  others  in  Turin  and 
98 


LXXIII. 


'THE  CROWNING  OF  NOMINOE" 
by  Toudouze 


THE   ART   OF   PENELOPE 

Naples.  For  more  than  fifty  years,  however,  the 
French  manufactory  has  been  the  lone  guardian  of 
this  divine  fire,  and  it  is  thanks  to  France  and  the 
Gobelins  that  the  glorious  art  tradition  begun  by 
Penelope  has  been  continued  to  this  day. 

The  national  manufactory  is  still  housed  in  the 
grounds  of  Louis  XIV,  as  in  the  time  of  its  foun- 
dation, but  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  weavers  of 
1662  have  dwindled  to  sixty,  and  the  annual 
appropriation  of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  has 
shrunk  to  fifty  thousand. 

It  was  not  until  1906  that  the  Gobelins  actually 
sought  the  limelight  by  exhibiting  its  most  recent 
productions '  at  the  annual  exposition  of  French 
artists  in  Paris.  Even  then,  it  was,  in  a  sense, 
hors  concours,  in  that  it  had  nothing  to  sell.  The 
tapestries  shown  were  all  government-ordered  and 
government-owned.  There  being  no  way  in  which 
"the  trade"  can  obtain  Gobelins  tapestries,  their 
value  to  this  same  trade  is  at  once  heightened. 
The  most  modern  Gobelins  available  for  barter 
and  exchange  date  back  to  Napoleon  III.  Since 
then,  outside  of  a  few  pieces  presented  by  the 
French  republic  to  visiting  rulers,  all  the  tapestries 
have  remained  the  property  of  the  State. 

In  a  degree  this  is  unfortunate,  as  comparatively 
few  can  enter  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  Elysee, 
99 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

of  the  Senate,  or  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Rennes, 
where  the  magnificent  tapestries  of  Galland,  Maig- 
non,  and  Toudouze  are  now  hung. 

It  would  certainly  redound  to  the  greater  glory 
of  the  Gobelins  of  to-day  if  reproductions  of  these 
really  splendid  tapestries  could  be  hung  in  a  public 
museum.  The  suite  of  Galland  which  ornaments 
the  parlors  of  the  Elysee  —  the  French  White 
House  —  is  a  triumph  of  classic  composition. 

The  work  of  Toudouze  is  less  ornamental,  more 
spectacular,  richer  in  colour.  It  pictures  the 
history  of  ancient  Brittany  in  six  crowded  scenes. 
Nothing  more  regal  ever  came  out  of  the  Gobelins, 
and  this  was  but  eight  short  years  ago. 

The  Gobelins 

In  a  distant  corner  of  that  Promised  Land  to 
which  good  Americans  are  said  to  journey  when 
they  die,  away  from  the  radiance  and  turmoil 
of  the  Grand  Boulevards,  and  almost  hidden 
among  the  ruelles  and  impasses  of  that  quartier  so 
dear  to  Murger  and  the  lovable  characters  of  "La 
Vie  de  Boheme,"  the  Manufacture  Royale  des 
Meubles  de  la  Couronne  rears  its  Louis  Quatorzian 
pile  along  three  sides  of  a  cobbled  quadrangle,  shut 
off  from  the  world  by  a  twelve-foot  wall.  If  it 
were  not  for  the  marble  slab  on  the  outer  wall 
100 


LXXIV.  "THE  MEETING  BETWEEN  JOAN  OF  ARC 
AND  THE  CONSTABLE  DE  RICHEMONT" 

by  Toudouze 


LXXV. 


'THE  MARRIAGE  OF  ANNE  OF  BRITTANY 
AND  CHARLES  VIII"  by  Toudouze 


THE   ART   OF   PENELOPE 

which  proclaims  the  fact  that  the  Manufacture 
Royale  was  established  on  this  site,  in  1667,  by 
special  edict  of  the  Roi  Soleil,  few  would  recognize 
in  the  age-worn  edifice  the  temple  in  which  has 
been  kept  burning  for  over  two  hundred  years  the 
fire  of  a  disappearing  art  —  an  art  which  might 
already  be  dead  so  far  as  the  average  man  is  con- 
cerned, for  few  there  be  who  know  that  patient 
weavers  still  sit  at  their  looms,  fitting  thread  to 
thread  to  make  the  things  of  beauty  that  only  the 
rich  can  own. 

The  ancient  H6tel  des  Gobelins,  dedicated  by 
Louis  XIV  to  the  use  of  artists  and  artisans  em- 
ployed by  Le  Brun  in  the  embellishment  of  Ver- 
sailles and  the  Louvre,  is  far  famed  for  the  splendid 
tapestries  that  flowered  upon  its  looms  in  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  At  that 
period  two  hundred  and  fifty  weavers  and  sixty 
apprentices  were  at  work,  fashioning  into  sumptu- 
ous hangings  the  cartoons  of  Le  Brun,  Jules 
Remain,  Coypel,  Nattier,  Vanloo,  Audran,  Oudry, 
and  Boucher.  To-day  the  Gobelins  employ  but 
sixty  weavers. 

During   the   troublesome   times  of   the   French 

Revolution,  and  later,  when  all  Europe  was  torn 

up  with   the  conflict  of  arms,   there  was  grave 

danger  that  the  flickering  flame  of  tapestry  weaving 

101 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

would  die  out.  At  that  time  Brussels  and  Arras  and 
the  other  once  famous  looms  of  Europe  had  already 
disappeared.  The  Gobelins  alone  remained. 

It,  too,  might  have  disappeared.  The  weavers 
were  left  unpaid  for  months,  and  that  generally 
inexorable  law  of  supply  and  demand  dictated  its 
abandonment.  Tapestries,  for  some  unfathomable 
reason,  no  longer  found  favour,  and  priceless 
hangings  that  had  been  the  chief  ornament  of 
palace  or  cathedral  were  relegated  to  lofts  or 
cellars,  there  to  accumulate  and  decay. 

On  two  occasions,  in  1794  and  1850,  the  propo- 
sition to  discontinue  the  manufactory  was  put 
forward,  but  each  time  there  were  enough  true 
patriots  and  real  Frenchmen  in  the  Convention 
and  Assembly  to  defeat  the  project,  and  thus  the 
fate  that  overtook  the  art  of  tapestry  weaving  at 
the  time  of  the  ushering  in  of  the  Christian  era 
was  avoided. 

The  present  bears,  of  course,  no  resemblance  to 
the  benighted  period  during  which  even  the  memory 
of  the  art  perished.  The  mind  cannot  conceive  of 
a  repetition  of  that  total  eclipse  of  art  which  en- 
shrouded the  Middle  Ages  in  darkness  for  nine 
hundred  years.  We  cannot  lose  the  memory  of 
the  splendid  tapestries  woven  by  Van  Aelst,  Pan- 
nemaker,  Geubels,  and  other  master  weavers  of  the 
102 


LXXVI.  "VERTUMNUS  AND  POMONA' 
by  Gorguet 


THE   ART  OF   PENELOPE 

sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  as  the  mem- 
ory of  the  Greek  and  Roman  art  was  lost  during 
the  Byzantine  period;  but  it  is  conceivable  that 
we  might  lose  the  technique  and  the  manual 
ability  to  equal  or  reproduce  them. 

The  maintainance  of  the  Gobelins  through  revo- 
lutions and  wars  and  general  public  indifference 
and  apathy  has  at  least  postponed  this  possibility. 
Let  us  be  grateful  for  that. 

Ever  since  its  foundation  the  manufactory  has 
wrought  solely  for  the  King  or  for  the  State. 
Through  royal  vicissitudes,  a  great  many  Gobelins 
formerly  passed  into  general  circulation;  but  there 
has  been  no  political  upset  in  France  since  1870, 
and  the  work  of  the  manufactory  since  then  has 
remained  beyond  the  reach  of  the  public  and  out 
of  the  auction-room.  That  such  tapestries  as  are 
available  for  trade  and  barter  are  rare  and,  of 
course,  highly  prized,  is  attested  by  the  sums  paid 
for  them  by  eager  purchasers.  The  same  pieces 
that  were  sold  for  a  few  hundred  francs  at  the 
dispersal  of  the  collection  of  Louis  Philippe,  in 
1852,  now  bring  many  thousands  of  dollars. 

All  Gobelins  are  not  worth  a  thousand  dollars 

a  square  foot,  of  course,  but  it  must  be  remembered 

that  years  of  skilled  labour  of  the  highest  artistic 

character  go  into  the  making  of  a  tapestry,  and 

103 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN   ARCHITECTURE 

since  a  master  weaver  will,  in  a  year,  not  turn  out 
more  than  five  square  feet  of  tapestry,  even  at  the 
very  modest  salary  of  five  hundred  dollars  a  year, 
this  would  bring  the  cost  up  to  a  hundred  dollars  a 
square  foot.  Add  to  this  the  cost  of  materials,  the 
artist's  pay  for  painting  the  original  picture,  etc., 
and  a  square  foot  of  tapestry,  irrespective  of  any 
artistic  merit  whatever,  represents  an  intrinsic 
value  of  at  least  two  hundred  dollars. 

After  the  French  Revolution,  the  first  evidence 
of  a  return  to  great  tapestry  weaving  was  the 
decorative  ensemble  ordered  in  1864  by  Napoleon 
III  for  one  of  the  reception-rooms  of  the  Elysee. 
As  executed  from  cartoons  painted  by  Baudry, 
nine  panels  symbolized  the  five  senses.  These 
were  nearly  completed  on  the  Gobelins  looms 
when  the  Franco-Prussian  war  broke  out.  At  the 
close  of  the  Commune  an  incendiary  fire  destroyed 
part  of  the  Gobelins  buildings  and  with  them 
most  Of  the  work  of  Baudry.  One  panel  represent- 
ing the  "Sense  of  Touch"  and  two  dessus  de  porte 
depicting  the  "Seasons"  were  saved.  Nothing 
which  the  manufactory  has  turned  out  in  the  whole 
course  of  the  nineteenth  century  can  be  compared 
with  this  work.  The  "Sense  of  Touch"  and  the 
"Seasons"  have  been  repeated  since  at  com- 
paratively frequent  intervals,  and  have  figured 
104 


THE   ART   OF   PENELOPE 

among  the  presents  offered  by  the  French  nation 
to  visiting  potentates. 

The  project  of  decorating  the  salons  of  the 
Elysee  with  modern  Gobelins  was  again  taken  up 
in  1876,  when  a  set  of  nineteen  panels  was  ordered 
from  P.  V.  Galland  to  replace  the  models  of 
Baudry  which  had  been  destroyed.  Besides  the 
Muses,  reduced  to  six  in  number,  it  comprised 
four  allegories  representing  Pastoral,  Lyrical,  Satiri- 
cal and  Heroic  Poetry,  and  two  panels  personat- 
ing Pegasus  and  the  lyre  of  Apollo.  Two  marble 
vases  and  a  third  of  porphyry,  with  two  golden 
tripods,  completed  the  ensemble.  The  success 
which  had  crowned  Baudry  and  Galland  encour- 
aged the  Beaux- Arts  to  persevere  in  its  plan  to 
decorate  the  interior  of  public  edifices  with  modern 
Gobelins.  Mazerelle,  Ehrmann,  Joseph  Blanc, 
Jean  Paul  Laurens,  Edouard  Toudouze,  were 
asked  to  furnish  cartoons  for  the  Opera,  the 
Luxembourg,  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  the 
Comedie  Francaise,  and  the  Palais  de  Justice  at 
Rennes.  Not  all  these  attempts  met  with  success. 
Having  to  ornament  the  staircase  of  the  Luxem- 
bourg, for  instance,  the  directors  made  the  grievous 
mistake  of  commissioning  eight  different  artists  to 
do  the  work,  allotting  a  panel  to  each.  In  order 
to  give  semblance  of  harmony,  it  had  been  planned 
105 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

to  frame  all  these  tapestries  with  the  same  border; 
but  when  the  time  came,  it  was  found  that  they 
had  been  woven  to  fit  the  architectural  bays 
exactly,  with  no  allowance  for  borders.  As  a 
consequence  the  borders  had  to  be  cut  and  the 
tapestries  had  to  be  hung  unframed.  This  unfor- 
tunate experience  bore  its  fruit,  since  it  served  to 
establish  the  principle  that  the  first  requisite  of  a 
decorative  ensemble  is  unity  of  inspiration  and 

execution. 

Recent  Gobelins  Tapestries 

In  the  last  twenty-five  years  the  Gobelins  have 
produced  four  important  sets,  designed  and  woven 
in  obedience  to  this  formula  for  the  Com£die 
Francaise,  by  Galland;  the  Sessions  Court  of  the 
Palais  de  Justice,  at  Rennes,  by  Joseph  Blanc; 
the  Joan  of  Arc,  by  Jean  Paul  Laurens;  and  the 
High  Court  of  the  Palais  de  Justice  at  Rennes,  by 
Edouard  Toudouze.  Another  important  set,  not 
yet'  finished,  is  intended  for  the  Senate.  The 
artist,  Albert  Maignan,  chose  his  subjects;  eight 
in  number,  from  Ovid's  "Metamorphoses."  Four 
of  the  panels  —  "Apollo  and  Daphne,"  "Venus 
and  Adonis,"  "Jupiter  and  Semele,"  and  "Min- 
erva and  Arachne"  —  are  already  in  place. 

While  all  these  decorative  hangings  deserve 
commendation,  the  set  composed  and  painted  by 
106 


THE   ART   OF    PENELOPE 

Edouard  Toudouze  for  the  High  Court  of  the 
Palais  de  Justice  at  Rennes  so  far  transcends  the 
others  that  it  must  be  put  in  a  class  by  itself. 

Toudouze  toiled  six  years  on  these  models,  and 
died  without  knowing  himself  one  of  the  elect. 
"The  Marriage  of  Anne  of  Brittany  and  Charles 
VIII,"  "The  Meeting  between  Joan  of  Arc  and 
the  Constable  de  Richemont,"  "The  Crowning  of 
Nominoe,"  "The  Death  of  Du  Guesclin "  —  each 
is  a  masterpiece. 

The  Work  of  Gorguet 

The  death  of  Toudouze  left  two  of  the  eight 
panels  for  the  Rennes  court-house  unfinished,  and 
chosen  to  execute  these  was  Gorguet,  whose 
"Vertumnus  and  Pomona"  already  hung  in  the 
Luxembourg.  This  tapestry,  completed  in  1899, 
is  to  a  Toudouze  set  what  a  landscape  is  to  a  war 
pageant.  The  tone  is  one  of  autumnal  tints  and 
sunset  effects.  What  particularly  justified  the 
choice  of  Gorguet  was  his  mural  paintings  in  the 
Salle  Gothique  of  the  Douai  Hotel  de  Ville.  The 
same  profusion  of  personages,  the  same  richness  of 
accoutrements  that  distinguish  Toudouze's  panels, 
are  found  in  the  "Entry  of  Jean  le  Bon  into 
Douai." 

Another  recent  historical  set,  finished  in  1911, 
107 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

now  graces  the  walls  of  the  Palais  de  Justice  of 
Bourges.  Of  the  tapestries  not  purely  decorative 
or  spectacular  is  a  textile  picture  by  Gustave 
Moreau,  entitled  the  "Poet  and  the  Siren,"  which, 
if  weird  in  conception  is  yet  art  of  high  order. 

In  addition  to  modern  cartoons,  the  Gobelins 
have  of  late  years  executed  a  number  of  copies  of 
ancient  works.  Of  these  might  be  mentioned  the 
"Venus"  of  J ordains,  the  "Marie  de  Medici"  of 
Rubens,  and  the  "Venus  at  the  Bath"  of  Boucher. 

Although  the  Gobelins  ateliers  are  supposed  to 
devote  their  labours  exclusively  to  the  'manufac- 
ture of  tapestries  ordered  by  the  Government,  at 
rare  intervals,  through  some  special  dispensation, 
they  have  been  known  to  turn  out  a  few  pieces 
here  and  there  for  favoured  individuals  in  private 
life  or  high  dignitaries  in  foreign  countries. 

A  marked  tendency  which  has  been  noticed  in 
the  work  of  the  Gobelins  for  the  past  ten  years  or 
x  more  has  been  to  reduce  gradually  the  number  of 
shades  and  tones  formerly  employed.  At  one 
time  it  was  considered  the  acme  of  skill  for  the 
weavers,  thanks  to  the  multiplicity  of  tints  and 
colours  available,  to  turn  out  tapestry  that  was 
almost  the  exact  reproduction  down  to  the  least 
stroke  of  the  brush  of  the  tableau  and  painting 
reproduced. 

108 


LXXVIII. 


'THE  POET  AND  THE  SIREN" 
by  Gustave  Moreau 


THE   ART   OF   PENELOPE 

A  wise  appreciation,  however,  of  the  work  of 
the  weavers  of  the  sixteenth  century,  who  could 

s 

depend  on  only  a  few  shades  and  yet  turned  out 
the  most  admirable  tapestry  ever  woven,  caused  a 
return  to  the  old  methods,  and  to-day,  instead  of 
reproducing  every  stroke  of  the  brush,  the  artist 
tries  to  interpret  the  original  cartoon  with  only 
twenty  or  thirty  shades  and  tones. 

While  chiefly  engaged  in  the  reproduction  of 
cartoons  of  contemporary  painters  like  Jean  Paul 
Laurens,  Georges  Claude,  Albert  Maignan,  Edouard 
Toudouze,  Gustave  Moreau,  Gorguet,  Mazerolle, 
and  even  of  Willette,  the  caricaturist,  yet  at  the 
same  time  the  compositions  of  Boucher  and  of 
Audran  engage  the  time  and  skill  of  modern  Gobe- 
lins weavers  and  are  reproduced  several  times. 
The  tapestries  drawn  from  cartoons  or  tableaux  of 
masters  like  Botticelli,  whose  "Spring"  was  trans- 
lated into  tapestry  only  a  few  years  ago,  or  of 
Raphael's  "Transfiguration,"  or  the  "Two  Lovers" 
by  Titian,  show  that  the  technique  of  the  present- 
day  weavers  of  the  famous  French  atelier  is  every 
whit  as  perfect  as  was  that  of  the  weavers  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  but  unfortu- 
nately, when  the  model  given  to  the  weaver  to 
reproduce  is  modern,  it  lacks  the  element  of  deco- 
rative and  ornamental  value  which  the  cartoons  of 
109 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS  IN    ARCHITECTURE 

earlier  days  possessed.  With  the  exception  of  the 
models  furnished  by  Toudouze,  Gorguet,  and 
Mazerolle,  most  of  the  nineteenth-century  car- 
toons are  deficient  in  decorative  value.  The 
"Vertumnus  and  Pomona"  of  Gorguet,  the  entire 
suite  picturing  the  history  of  Brittany  by  Tou- 
douze, and  the  "Godchild  of  the  Fairies"  by 
Mazerolle  contain  in  them  enough  promise  for  the 
future,  however,  to  keep  burning  brightly  the  hope 
that  as  long  as  the  Gobelins  exist  the  world  may 
expect  new  glory  and  splendor  from  this  neglected 
field  of  the  arts. 

It  was  under  the  high  patronage  of  Louis  XIV 
that  the  Gobelins  weavers  attained  their  greatest 
fame.  The  guiding  hand  of  Charles  Le  Brun,  who 
was  the  director  of  the  establishment,  manifested 
itself  in  the  enlisting  of  nearly  a  score  of  the  most 
talented  artists  of  the  time  whom  he  commissioned 
to  paint  cartoons  for  subsequent  translation  into 
tapestries. 

The  original  plan  or  design  in  all  of  these  tapes- 
tries is  attributed  to  Le  Brun  himself.  This  gives 
the  Gobelins  of  this  period  a  certain  harmony  not 
found  in  those  produced  under  his  successors. 

One  of  the  characteristics  of  the  Gobelin  man- 
agement has  been  and  continues  to  be  the  repro- 
duction and  repetition  of  tapestries  in  proportion 
110 


LXXIX.  WATER  COLOUR  DRAWING  FOR  TAPESTRY 

From  the  earliest  civilization  the  decorative  artist  has  closely 
observed  the  growth  of  vegetal  species 


THE   ART   OF   PENELOPE 

with  the  success  and  beauty  of  the  first  woven 
specimens.  Though  not  lacking  in  new  and  highly 
artistic  cartoons  not  yet  done  into  tapestries,  the 
weavers  are  constantly  at  work  repeating  a  tap- 
estry already  established  as  a  work  of  art.  Even 
Le  Brun,  who  had  dozens  of  subjects  as  yet  un- 
woven to  chose  from,  ordered  the  portieres  of 
"Fame,"  for  instance,  to  be  repeated  seventy- 
two  times,  and  those  of  "Mars"  sixty-seven 
times. 

It  is  not  always  those  subjects  which  were  most 
frequently  reproduced,  however,  which  have  gained 
the  greatest  fame. 

During  the  twenty-eight  years  in  which  Le  Brun 
conducted  the  Gobelins,  there  were  reproduced 
only  five  or  six  series,  which  have  since  been 
recognized  as  masterpieces.  Of  these  may  be 
mentioned  "Elements  and  Seasons,"  "Child  Gar- 
deners," "History  of  the  King,"  "The  Months," 
"The  Royal  Residences"  and  the  "History  of 
Alexander  the  Great."  The  "Child  Gardeners" 
was  reproduced  only  five  times,  and  there  is  but 
one  complete  suite  of  the  "History  of  the  King" 
now  in  existence,  but  the  "Royal  Residences" 
were  put  on  the  looms  five  times  in  twelve  years. 
The  "Months"  found  greater  favour  with  the 
Court,  and  we  find  that  one  hundred  and  ten 
111 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

tapestries  were  executed  from  this  model  at  the 
Gobelins. 

Of  all  these  works  by  Le  Brun,  however,  the 
prize  is  undoubtedly  the  series  known  as  the 
"History  of  Alexander  the  Great."  These  tapes- 
tries were  not  only  copied  eighty-six  times  at  the 
Gobelins,  but  we  find  the  weavers  of  Brussels 
and  Aubusson  copying  them  in  their  respective 
ateliers. 

This  suite  consists  of  five  subjects,  representing 
five  incidents  in  the  life  of  Alexander  the  Great. 
Three  of  these  were  so  large  that  it  was  found 
necessary  to  divide  them  in  three  parts,  separating 
the  groups  on  the  right  and  left  from  the  central 
subject.  Thus  we  find  the  "Battle  of  Arbelles," 
"Battle  of  Porus,"  and  the  "Battle  of  Grenique" 
divided  into  a  central  panel  and  two  lateral  panels. 
The  complete  suite  hangs  in  the  Louvre  and  is  an 
eloquent  monument,  both  to  the  genius  of  Le  Brun 
and  the  skill  of  the  Gobelins  weavers  of  his  time. 

After  Le  Brun  the  Gobelins  traditions  suffered  a 
temporary  eclipse,  but  the  old  fire  was  rekindled 
for  a  while,  thanks  to  the  talent  of  Noel  Coypel, 
who  furnished  the  cartoons  for  the  suite  known  as 
the  "Triumph  of  the  Gods"  which  has  since 
ranked  among  the  most  glorious  tapestries  of  the 
Manufacture. 

112 


THE   ART   OF   PENELOPE 

The  Gobelins  factory,  which  had  engaged  the 
services  of  eight  hundred  artists  under  Le  Brun, 
fell  into  such  neglect,  however,  from  the  non- 
payment of  the  weavers,  due  to  the  poor  state  of 
the  Royal  finances  at  that  time,  that  in  1695  it 
had  to  be  closed. 

Two  years  later  the  interrupted  work  was 
resumed,  and  the  factory  re-entered  into  its 
functions,  but  on  a  much  reduced  scale. 

It  was  during  this  very  precarious  period  that 
one  of  the  most  famous  series  ever  produced  by 
the  Gobelins  was  woven.  This  is  the  suite  known 
as  the  "Portieres  of  the  Gods,"  which  consists  of 
eight  pieces,  and  represents  the  four  seasons  and 
the  four  elements,  each  personified  by  one  of  the 
gods  or  goddesses  of  Olympus.  These  eight  pieces 
have  been  repeated  again  and  again  until  the 
records  show  two  hundred  thirty-seven  specimens 
as  having  left  the  Gobelins  looms. 

While  it  would  seem  that  the  number  of  these 
tapestries  in  circulation  should  take  from  the  value 
of  each  respective  tapestry,  the  fact  is  that,  when- 
ever a  "Portiere  of  the  Gods"  appears  in  a  sale 
it  brings  a  very  much  higher  price  than  a  score  of 
other  Gobelins  of  which  there  are  considerably 
fewer  replicas  in  existence. 

Of  all  the  Gobelins  tapestries,  however,  the  most 
113 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

famous  is  probably  the  suite  which  portrays  the 
"History  of  Don  Quixote."  This  remarkable  work 
occupied  the  best  weavers  of  the  Gobelins  from 
1718  to  1794  almost  without  interruption.  It 
holds  a  unique  rank  among  the  decorative  crea- 
tions of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  no  other 
shows  as  completely  the  intimate  arrangement  of 
the  scenic  and  decorative  as  this  does. 

The  subjects,  which  are  by  Charles  Coypel, 
number  twenty-eight  and  the  borders  are  variously 
attributed  to  Audran,  Fontenay,  and  Desportes. 

According  to  the  records  of  the  Gobelins  there 
were  woven  no  fewer  than  two  hundred  forty 
pieces  of  the  "Don  Quixote"  suite. 

This  has  not  dampened  the  ardour  of  collectors, 
however,  if  we  judge  by  the  price  paid  by  Mrs. 
F.  E.  Dixon  for  the  suite  owned  by  the  King  of 
Spain.  This  suite,  consisting  of  five  pieces,  was 
sold  by  J.  P.  Morgan  in  1916  for  six  hundred 
thousand  dollars. 

Another  series  afterward  produced  by  Charles 
Coypel  recently  achieved  the  distinction  of  bring- 
ing the  highest  price  ever  obtained  at  a  public 
sale.  This  is  the  "Fragment  of  Opera,"  consisting 
of  four  scenes,  and  known  to  have  been  reproduced 
six  times  since. 

Among  other  famous  tapestries  emanating  from 
114 


THE   ART   OF   PENELOPE 

the  Gobelins  should  be  mentioned  those  fashioned 
after  the  model  painted  by  Boucher,  and  known  as 
the  ''Loves  of  the  Gods"  and  "Fabled  Subjects." 

Beauvais 

Although  established  in  1664  as  an  offshoot  of 
the  Gobelins,  the  Manufacture  Royale  de  Beauvais 
subsequently  achieved  an  individuality  which  stamps 
the  tapestries  emanating  from  its  looms  with  a 
character  altogether  distinct  from  that  observable 
in  tapestries  produced  in  the  parent  atelier. 

The  original  intention  was  to  occupy  the  weav- 
ers at  the  Gobelins  with  work  designed  exclusively 
for  the  embellishment  of  the  Royal  residences, 
while  the  weavers  at  Beauvais  were  authorized  to 
accept  commissions  from  the  Court  and  the  public 
in  general. 

At  the  outset  both  high-loom  and  basse  lisse 
tapestries  were  turned  out  by  the  Beauvais  weav- 
ers. The  high-loom  tapestries  produced  under  the 
direction  of  Behagle  in  1684,  notably  the  suite  of 
the  "Apostles"  from  the  model  by  Raphael,  were 
of  the  same  character  as  those  produced  under 
the  management  of  Le  Brun  in  Paris.  Soon, 
however,  the  paucity  of  orders  for  monumental 
tapestries  threw  the  Beauvais  factory  into  the 
making  of  smaller  pieces  woven  exclusively  on  the 
115 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

low    loom    and    designed    mostly    as    covers    for 
furniture. 

With  the  appointment  of  Jean  Baptiste  Oudry 
as  director  of  the  establishment,  the  high  loom  was 
entirely  abandoned  and  the  energy  of  the  Beauvais 
ateliers  was  centred  upon  the  reproduction  on  the 
low  loom  of  models  painted  by  Oudry  and  con- 
sisting of  a  decorative  ensemble  in  which  the  cov- 
ering of  furniture  matched,  or  at  least  harmonized 
with,  the  wall  hangings  of  the  apartment  in  which 
the  furniture  was  to  be  installed. 

Among  the  most  famous  of  Oudry's  decorations 
is  the  suite  in  which  the  "  Fables  "of  La  Fontaine 
are  represented;  these,  together  with  scenes  taken 
from  the  comedies  of  Moliere,  and  from  the 
"Metamorphoses"  of  Ovid,  have  been  reproduced 
again  and  again  and  have  contributed  not  a  little  to 
the  fame  both  of  Oudry  and  the  Beauvais  factory. 

So  profitable  commercially  did  the  management 
of  Oudry  prove,  that  the  sales  during  his  adminis- 
tration netted  nearly  a  hundred  thousand  pounds. 
Oudry  succeeded  in  interesting  Boucher  in  the 
success  of  the  Beauvais  establishment  and  secured 
from  him  a  number  of  cartoons  subsequently 
rendered  into  tapestries  and  of  which  a  single  one, 
taken  from  the  history  of  Psyche,  was  sold  recently 
for  three  hundred  thousand  francs. 
116 


THE   ART  OF   PENELOPE 

A  number  of  tapestries  from  Boucher  models 
are  owned  by  the  Royal  families  of  Sweden  and 
Italy.  Boucher's  ''Love  of  the  Gods"  was  repro- 
duced at  Beauvais,  as  were  some  other  subjects 
less  famous,  but  in  no  way  less  remarkable. 

Every  mural  decoration  turned  out  by  the 
weavers  of  Beauvais  had  its  complement  of  chairs 
and  fauteuils  covered  with  tapestry  inspired  from 
the  tenture.  The  Palace  of  Compiegne  is  rich  in 
furniture  thus  covered  and  few  are  the  royal  or 
princely  habitations  which  have  not  one  or  more 
complete  sets  of  this  justly  prized  ameublement. 

In  the  ninteenth  century  the  Manufacture  de 
Beauvais  was  almost  exclusively  engaged  in  turn- 
ing out  covers  for  furniture.  Under  Napoleon  III 
it  furnished  tapestries  for  180  sofas,  243  fauteuils, 
532  chairs,  109  tabourets,  28  portieres  or  hang- 
ings, and  12  table-covers,  all  of  which  went  into 
the  decoration  of  the  imperial  habitations  at  Saint 
Cloud  and  the  Tuileries,  and  represented  a  value 
of  about  one  million  francs. 

From  1878  to  1889  the  ateliers  produced  79 
mural  tapestries,  64  sofas,  72  fauteuils,  and  62  chairs. 

The  Beauvais  weave  is  finer  than  that  of  the 
Gobelins  high  loom;  there  are  ten  threads  per 
centimeter  at  Beauvais  to  seven  or  eight  at  the 
Gobelins. 

117 


CHAPTER  IX 
PAINTED  GLASS 

LTHOUGH  the  most  ancient  speci- 
mens of  painting  on  glass  date 
back  to  the  tenth  century,  the 
full  development  of  this  branch  of 
art  did  not  come  until  the  twelfth 
century  and  practically  disappeared  in  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  It  is  puzzling  to  the 
minds  of  those  who  have  studied  the  splendour  of 
glass  as  it  was  during  these  five  hundred  years, 
why  an  art  appreciated  and  honoured  by  artists  of 
the  discernment  and  talent  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci, 
Albrecht  Durer,  Hans  Holbein,  and  later  by  Van 
Dyck,  Gerard  Dow,  Fragonard,  and  Ingres  should 
have  been  allowed  to  fall  into  disfavour. 

From  its  having  been  totally  eclipsed  during  the 
eighteenth  century  and  part  of  the  nineteenth, 
there  has,  however,  of  later  years  been  a  revival 
of  this  very  gorgeous  adjunct  to  decoration, 
but  through  a  lack  of  vulgarization  and  the  paucity 
of  the  demand  among  amateurs  who  have  the 
means  to  encourage  art,  painting  on  glass  is  still  a 
118 


LXXXII.  XIV  CENTURY  WINDOW 

With  the  XIV  century  there  appears  a  tendency  to  make  a 
window  less  of  a  mosaic  and  more  of  a  tableau 


PAINTED   GLASS 

long  way  from  what  it  was  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury and  for  the  three  or  four  hundred  years  that 
followed.  At  one  time  it  was  thought  to  explain 
this  neglect  of  the  art  by  a  declaration  that  the 
secret  of  the  glass  makers  of  the  Middle  Ages  had 
been  lost  in  transmission,  and  that  certain  processes, 
particularly  the  making  of  red  glass,  could  but 
feebly  be  approximated  by  the  craftsman  of  the 
present.  The  art  of  painting  on  glass  was  not 
constituted  in  one  day,  and  the  artists  of  the 
twelfth  century  did  not  reveal  themselves  masters 
in  the  matter  over  night.  A  long  period  of  experi- 
ment was  necessary  before  the  various  formulae 
were  discovered  and  became  established,  and  before 
the  technique  of  the  master  glasiers  merged  into 
the  technique  of  the  master  painters  on  glass. 
Ever  since,  however,  its  firm  •  establishment  in 
Germany,  and  almost  at  the  same  time  in  France, 
the  tradition  has  been  handed  down  from  century 
to  century,  and  there  is  no  secret  known  either  in 
the  twelfth  or  the  sixteenth  century  which  has  not 
come  down  to  us.  Copper  and  manganese  and  all 
the  other  metallic  oxides  used  in  the  Middle  Ages 
are  available  to-day,  and  some  that  were  not 
thought  of  nine  hundred  years  ago  have  become 
of  everyday  application.  Thanks  to  the  impulsion 
given  to  the  revival  of  stained  glass  by  Viollet-le- 
119 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

Due,  who  engaged  Ingres  and  Delacroix  to  paint 
the  cartoons  for  the  chateau  and  the  church  at 
Dreux,  this  form  of  ornamentation  and  decoration 
was  actively  developed  in  France  in  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  and  we  find  the  porcelain 
manufacturers  of  Sevres  busily  engaged  in  fashion- 
ing the  vitrals  for  the  Orleans  chapel  at  Neuilly, 
for  the  church  of  St.  Louis,  at  Versailles,  and  for 
various  'other  public  edifices  ordered  by  the  State. 
The  activity  at  Sevres  brought  about  the  estab- 
lishment of  private  ateliers  at  Clermont-Ferrand, 
Metz,  Tours,  and  Brussels.  The  glass  in  the 
portals  of  the  church  of  St.  Germain-rAuxerrois 
in  Paris  and  those  of  the  Ste.  Chapel le  date  back 
to  this  period.  In  the  twenty  years  between  1850 
and  1870  a  great  many  cathedrals  and  religious 
edifices  were  restored  by  the  painted  glass  artists 
of  this  day  and  generation,  among  them  the  cathe- 
dral of  Notre  Dame  in  Paris,  those  of  Ste.  Clotilde, 
St.  Augustine,  St.  Mihel,  the  cathedral  of  Chartres, 
Bourges,  Quimper,  the  chapel  of  Vincennes,  etc. 
Needless  to  say,  every  church  built  during  this 
period  was  equipped  with  stained  glass  from  origi- 
nal cartoons.  The  Universal  Exposition  of  1878 
in  Paris  added  to  the  movement  by  utilizing  painted 
glass  in  other  than  religious  edifices,  and  we  find 
the  windows  of  the  Trocadero  illumined  with 
120 


LXXXIII.  PAINTED  GLASS  WINDOW 

The  lead  does  not  always  logically  divide  a  design  but  frequently 
it  asserts  the  contour  and  gives  it  an  exaggeration  needed  in 
large  spaces  such  as  the  window  openings  in  Gothic  cathedrals 


PAINTED   GLASS 

vitrals  depicting  Japanese  themes.  Since  then,  a 
great  many  private  residences  and  quite  a  few 
public  places  of  amusement  have  resorted  to 
painted  glass  in  their  decoration,  and  while  the 
application  has  not  always  been  perfect,  yet  the 
impetus  received  was  strong  enough  to  bring  about 
a  sort  of  fashion  which  was  eminently  gratifying 
while  it  lasted. 

Particular  distinction  was  given  to  this  move- 
ment in  France  in  1891  by  Albert  Besnard,  the 
famous  colourist  and  painter,  who  until  then  had 
been  known  more  for  his  mural  decoration  and 
portraits.  Since  this,  Besnard  has  from  time  to 
time  painted  remarkably  brilliant  cartoons  for  the 
Musee  des  Arts  Decoratifs,  for  the  Paris  City 
Hall,  and  for  various  private  individuals  which 
have  been  acclaimed  as  masterpieces  of  colour  and 
ornament.  The  subjects  chosen  for  the  Mus£e  des 
Arts  Decoratifs  are  rural  scenes,  picturing  wheat 
fields,  oxen,  perspective  of  sky  and  trees,  and 
various  aspects  of  bird  life  portraying  peacocks, 
swans,  eagles,  and  the  humble  barn-yard  denizens. 
The  treatment  of  these  subjects  demonstrates  very 
clearly  what  may  be  done  in  painted  glass  for 
other  than  ecclesiastical  windows. 

The  impetus  which  the  art  of  painted  glass 
received  in  the  last  fifty  years  was  due  to  the 
121 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

necessity  of  restoring  in  historical  monuments 
portions  of  stained  glass  which  had  been  destroyed 
through  time  or  accident.  This  work  of  restora- 
tion was  comparatively  easy,  since  the  artist  could 
be  guided  as  to  the  colour  by  the  adjoining  frag- 
ments, and  as  to  outline  by  the  lead  which 
remained. 

The  most  conspicuous  example  of  such  restora- 
tion are  those  supervised  by  Viollet-le-Duc,  of  the 
Church  of  St.  Denis,  near  Paris.  This  marked 
the  revival  of  an  art  which  had  been  dormant  for 
two  centuries. 

One  of  the  best  decorators  of  his  day,  Luc 
Olivier  Merson,  and  after  him  men  like  Grasset, 
Jean  Paul  Laurens,  Francois  Ehrmann,  were  easily 
persuaded  to  draw  cartoons  on  the  orthodox 
technique  of  the  seventeenth  century,  in  which  the 
chief  consideration  was  outline.  Thanks  to  the 
prestige  attaching  to  these  great  artists  there  exists 
to-day  enough  stained  glass  of  contemporaneous 
manufacture  to  prove  that  the  art  is  not  lost,  and 
needs  only  a  little  encouragement  to  blossom  forth 
again  in  all  its  pristine  brilliancy. 

The  late  W.  K.  Vanderbilt  commissioned  L.  O. 
Merson  to  paint  for  him  a  series  of  cartoons,  which 
have  since  been  executed  in  glass,  and  offer  the 
most  conclusive  proof  of  the  foregoing. 
122 


LXXXIV.  LATE  XIII  CENTURY  GLASS  PANEL 

St.  George  and  the  Dragon 


PAINTED   GLASS 

The  Cathedral  of  Autun,  the  Church  of  Mont- 
morency,  and  the  brilliant  series  by  Grasset  for 
the  Cathedral  of  Orleans,  presenting  Joan  of  Arc 
and  St.  Michael,  and  Besnard's  window  for  the 
School  of  Pharmacy,  in  Paris,  only  serve  to  con- 
firm this  hopeful  view. 

The  restoration  by  Ehrmann,  of  the  partially 
destroyed  window  in  the  Church  of  Montmorency, 
is  so  perfect  as  to  have  suggested  a  criticism  that 
the  new  part  be  marked  in  order  that  the  future 
generations  should  know  which  was  painted  in  the 
sixteenth  century  and  which  in  the  nineteenth. 

Previous  to  the  seventeenth  century,  the  painted 
glass  used  for  the  decoration  of  church  windows 
was  produced  and  obtained  in  advance  of  its  use, 
and,  as  it  were,  irrespective  of  its  destination.  The 
artist  who  had  a  window  to  compose  bought  his 
glass  by  the  square  foot,  and  later  cut  his  design 
out  of  the  area  of  red  glass  and  joined  it  to  another 
fragment  cut  out  from  an  area  of  blue  glass.  It 
was  only  by  superposing  various  thicknesses  of 
glass  that  differences  of  shading  were  obtainable. 
Violet  was  produced  by  superposing  red  and  blue, 
as  was  green  by  the  superposition  of  yellow  on  blue. 
There  are  vitrals  in  existence  in  which  as  many  as 
six  thicknesses  of  glass  have  been  utilized  in  the 
effort  to  obtain  a  certain  refinement  in  shading. 
123 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

The  process  employed  by  the  artist  of  the 
twelfth  century  was  to  draw  the  outlines  of  his 
window  on  a  flat  table  and  later  to  apply  painted 
glass  over  the  pattern,  following  his  chalk  outline 
with  a  red-hot  iron  and  thereby  obtaining  a  break 
along  the  line  of  the  chalk  pattern.  The  cut-out 
fragments  were  then  baked  and  subsequently 
reassembled  on  the  work-table,  where  they  were 
temporarily  fixed  with  small  nails,  leaving  a  fissure 
large  enough  for  the  introduction  of  the  lead 
used  in  solidifying  the  assembled  portions. 

Various  oxides  of  copper  were  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  red,  blue,  and  green  glass,  while  cobalt, 
magnesia,  and  iron  ore  were  used  to  produce  the 
heavier  shades  of  blue  and  certain  tints  approxi- 
mating purple  and  pink.  The  neutral  colouring 
used  to  paint  the  features  and  small  outlines  of 
the  faces,  the  folds  of  drapery,  the  small  details  of 
ornamentation,  all  too  minute  to  be  indicated  by 
glass  insertions  of  different  shades,  was  obtained 
through  a  mixture  of  copper  and  iron  ore. 

The  primordial  colours  were  blue,  red,  and 
green,  while  here  and  there  certain  shades  of 
purple,  brown,  and  pink  were  occasionally  en- 
countered. White  was  indicated  by  a  very  light 
green.  Few  vitrals  of  the  twelfth  century  have 
come  down  to  the  present  day  and  there  is  in 
124 


PAINTED   GLASS 

them  a  certain  crudeness,  for  which  possibly  the 
paucity  of  inventiveness  of  the  period  and  the 
lack  of  materials  are  responsible.  The  progress 
which  is  noted  in  windows  of  the  thirteenth, 
fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries  may  be  based 
upon  the  fact  that  art  in  all  its  branches  was  in 
full  flowering  at  that  time,  and  that  the  bizarre 
and  barbarous  figures  of  the  earlier  epoch  have 
now  given  place  to  a  surety  of  drawing  which  no 
longer  shocks  the  eye.  The  fragments  have  become 
much  smaller,  and  it  is  not  unusual  to  see  heads  in 
which  the  contours  and  outline  of  the  beard,  eye, 
eyebrows,  and  nose  are  all  leaded.  There  are 
quite  a  few  specimens  in  which  the  eyes  have  an 
inserted  iris  of  blue  glass.  The  cathedral  of 
Chartres  contains  one  hundred  and  forty-seven 
windows  in  which  we  may  admire  this  fineness  of 
detail  of  the  thirteenth-century  vitrifactors.  The 
glass  in  the  cathedral  of  Reims  which  depicts  the 
chronology  of  the  kings  of  France  also  dates  from 
this  period,  while  the  cathedrals  of  Rouen,  Amiens, 
Mans,  Lyons,  Poitiers,  Lausanne,  and  Florence  are 
rich  in  examples  of  the  best  which  this  period 
produced.  Other  thirteenth-century  vitrals  of 
merit  may  be  found  in  religious  edifices  of  Pisa, 
Brussels,  Liege,  Milan,  Strasburg,  Troyes,  Tours, 
Canterbury,  Salisbury,  Cologne,  Toledo,  Munster, 
125 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

and  Soissons,  to  say  nothing  of  the  three  roses  of 
the  portals  and  transepts  of  Notre  Dame  of  Paris, 
which  are  of  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  and  begin- 
ning of  the  fourteenth  century.  With  the  four- 
teenth century  there  appears  a  tendency  to  make  a 
window  less  of  a  mosaic  and  more  of  a  tableau. 
The  objects  begin  to  appear  made  altogether  en 
grisaille,  that  is,  made  altogether  on  white  glass. 
By  means'  of  a  slight  coat  of  ochre  mixed  with 
chloride  of  silver  a  new  shade  of  yellow  has  been 
obtained  and  this  we  find  figuring  more  and  more 
in  the  chromatic  scheme  of  windows  of  this  period. 
It  is  also  at  this  time  of  the  development  of  the 
art  that  the  practice  appears  of  eating  through 
the  colour  of  the  glass  with  an  emery  wheel  and 
thereby  obtaining  inscriptions  and  designs  which  ap- 
pear written  or  drawn  in  plain  glass  against  a  back- 
ground of  red  glass.  More  and  more  there  is  a 
concern  for  the  accentuation  of  outline.  The 
drawing  is  more  subtle,  and  while  the  colouring  is 
still  in  a  great  measure  conventional,  the  artist  is 
very  careful  to  detach  the  various  objects  entering 
into  his  composition,  not  only  by  a  division  in 
lead,  but  by  contrast  in  colour.  Three  dogs  racing 
together  will  be  outlined  one  on  the  other  by 
making  the  first  green,  the  second  gray,  and  the 
third  yellow. 

126 


LXXXV.  PAINTED  GLASS  PANEL,  XIII  CENTURY 

French  vitrail  XIII  century 


PAINTED  GLASS 

With  the  fifteenth  century,  the  artists  of  the 
time  go  a  little  further,  and  attempt  to  introduce 
light  and  shade  into  their  compositions,  and  there 
is  a  great  fondness  for  landscapes  in  the  back- 
ground. A  new  perfection  in  the  making  of  glass 
dates  from  this  period,  when  a  flesh  tone  was  dis- 
covered and  added  to  the  palette  of  the  glass 
painter.  It  was  obtained  through  a  mixture  of 
lime,  lead,  and  sanguine  and  was  applied  to  the 
glass  very  thickly,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
baking  action  of  the  oven  eliminated  most  of  it. 
It  was  also  at  this  time  that  the  practice  of  cutting 
the  glass  with  the  diamond  was  introduced. 
1  As  was  the  case  for  all  the  arts  during  that 
happy  period  when  artists  were  made  and  not 
born,  only  such  craftsmen  as  had  proven  their 
ability  could  engage  in  the  manufacture  of  painted 
glass.  Article  46  of  the  statutes  of  the  Corporation 
of  Glasiers  of  Lyons  under  date  of  1496,  stipulated 
that  the  workman  ambitious  to  obtain  recognition 
as  a  master  craftsman  was  required  to  make  two 
panels,  each  containing  at  least  eight  square  feet, 
and  in  which  he  was  to  picture  Christ  on  Calvary 
and  the  death  of  the  Virgin,  "or  any  other  sub- 
ject imposed  by  the  jurors."  These  two  panels 
were  to  be  painted,  baked,  and  assembled  in  the 
shop  or  under  the  eye  of  one  of  the  masters  of  the 
127 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

corporation,  and  upon  its  being  adjudged  a  chef 
d'&wre,  the  maker  could  acquire  it  by  paying  into 
the  treasury  of  the  corporation  its  value  as  fixed 
by  the  jurors.  In  addition  the  successful  candi- 
date was  expected  to  offer  a  dinner  to  the  jurors 
who  had  passed  upon  his  work. 

No  man  not  adjudged  a  master  could  engage  in 
the  manufacture  of  painted  glass  or  accept  a  con- 
tract for  any  work  of  this  character. 

With  the  coming  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the 
art  of  painting  on  glass  underwent  certain  trans- 
formations, chief  of  which  was  the  adoption  of  the 
practice  of  enamelling  the  ordinary  glass  with  a 
pigment,  and  no  longer  assembling  glass  already 
coloured.  Thus,  a  figure  involving  the  use  of  four 
or  five  different  colours  would  no  longer  have  these 
colours  joined  with  lead  as  by  the  former  method, 
but  appeared  as  painted  directly  on  the  one  piece 
and  without  divisions.  Needless  to  say,  this 
method  had  its  drawbacks,  since  it  was  the  finished 
painting  which  had  to  be  placed  in  the  oven  and 
not  the  separate  fragments,  so  that  the  heat  which 
sufficed  for  developing  the  red  of  one  fragment  or 
of  one  portion  of  the  painting  could  be,  as  it  was 
on  occasion,  too  intense  or  not  intense  enough  for 
the  developing  of  a  yellow  or  blue  or  the  obtaining 
of  delicate  shades  of  lavender  and  green. 
128 


LXXXVI.  XVI  CENTURY  WINDOW 
In  an  English  church  in  Sussex 


PAINTED   GLASS 

For  this  reason  the  vitrals  of  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries  are  much  richer  in  colour, 
while  those  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  gain 
in  drawing  and  outline  and  in  the  variety  of 
shades  employed. 

As  it  is  the  purpose  of  vitrals  to  be  seen  always 
from  a  distance,  there  is  to  be  said  against  stained 
glass  not  assembled  by  lead  that  it  lacks  in  the 
accentuation  of  outline.  The  lead  does  not  always 
logically  divide  a  design,  but  frequently  it  asserts 
the  contour  and  gives  it  an  exaggeration  needed 
in  large  spaces  such  as  the  window  openings  in 
Gothic  cathedrals.  It  is  therefore  with  the  devel- 
oping of  the  practice  of  painting  en  bloc  instead 
of  on  fragments,  that  the  art  of  painted  glass 
reached  its  culmination  and  began  to  fade  and 
deteriorate. 

The  eighteenth  century  sees  it  at  its  lowest 
ebb,  and  it  was  not  until  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  that  a  certain  revival  took  place. 
The  artists  of  the  Renaissance  were  condemned 
for  introducing  perspective  into  the  making  "of 
their  glass,  and  this  perhaps  contributed  to  the 
disfavour  which  for  a  while  signalized  its  use  in 
subsequent  generations. 

The  same  reproach  is  laid  at  the  door  of  tapestry, 
since  both  vitrals  and  tapestries  have  for  their 
129 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

chief  function  the  decoration  of  flat  surfaces  and 
should  not  convey  the  idea  of  depth  or  distance. 

We  are  far  from  the  glory  of  the  sixteenth 
century  and  examples  of  a  hundred  years  ago 
cannot  be  compared  with  those  in  the  cathedrals 
of  Winchester,  Lichfield,  Burgos,  Seville,  West- 
minster Abbey,  and  the  Reims  cathedral,  but 
there  is  yet  hope  that  in  the  field  of  the  profane 
as  contrasted  with  the  religious,  a  vogue  for  painted 
glass  will  set  in  that  will  rehabilitate  this  most 
gorgeous  of  decorative  arts. 


130 


/m$k    f^lfti 

%eVRMl       x    ^a-t  • 


Fl  M 
KJ  jn«  flfe  l>  i  fei 

s^aLsrsAr     J    .  - Ji      XA^S?     \***~»s'i     3ti&/ifXf 


W& 


LXXXVH.  WINDOW  OF  OLD  GLASS  FRAGMENTS 

The  vitrails  of  the  XV  and  XVI  centuries  gain  in  drawing 
and  outline  and  in  the  variety  of  shades  employed 


LXXXVIII.  IRON  LOCK  PLATE 

In  the  XV  and  XVI  centuries  the  use  of  sheet  iron  became  general 


A' 


CHAPTER  X 
WROUGHT  IRON 

MONO  the  objects  which  man  has 
wrought  through  the  ages  there  are 
few  which  evoke  a  deeper  emotion  or 

/  \\  more  powerful  sensation  than  those 
-A  IX.  which  he  has  fashioned  out  of  iron. 

At  sight  of  a  work  of  art  manufactured  out  of 
wrought  iron  the  mind  pictures  the  iron  master  at 
grips  with  the  inert  matter,  bending  his  energies 
to  the  end  of  mastering  and  taming  the  raw  sub- 
stance, of  rendering  it  malleable,  and  injecting 
into  it  the  magic  spark  of  life. 

We  picture  the  smith,  with  bare  muscular  arms, 
his  face  glowing  from  the  light  of  the  forge,  strik- 
ing docility  into  the  iron  with  strong  and  mighty 
blows;  we  see  him  giving  to  the  inert  mass  a  soul 
and  a  voice,  making  the  iron  solemn  or  festive  and 
putting  into  it  the  expression  of  his  spirit,  which 
may  be  sombre  and  severe  as  when  he  fashions  the 
grille  to  a  prison  cell,  or  gay  and  festive  as  when 
he  hammers  and  assembles  a  metal  barrier  to  a 
park  or  garden,  meant  more  as  an  ornament  than 
as  an  obstacle. 

131 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

From  time  immemorial  the  smith  has  had  to  be 
the  interpreter  of  his  own  poetry.  The  technique 
of  ironmongery  has  always  been  so  arduous  and 
difficult  that  the  hand  that  designs  and  sketches 
has  had  to  be  also  the  hand  that  hammers  and 
forges.  A  great  deal  of  the  work  of  the  iron- 
monger appears  to  the  eye  as  if  it  were  a  realiza- 
tion of  some  dream  issuing  from  the  brain  of  an 
architect  concerned  solely  with  the  achievement  of 
an  ensemble  constituting  beauty.  It  is  often 
imagined  that  things  that  can  be  drawn  with  a 
pencil  can  be  reproduced  on  an  anvil.  The  diffi- 
culties are  less  than  they  were.  The  time  needed 
for  the  development  of  detail  is  less  than  it  was. 
Chemistry,  in  providing  new  alloys,  and  giving  to 
iron  a  softness  almost  equal  to  wood,  has  robbed 
the  metier  of  the  ironmonger  of  a  great  deal  of  its 
arduousness,  but  each  masterpiece  of  delicate 
tracery  and  metal  work  that  strikes  the  eye  has 
had  in  it  ten  times  the  effort,  and  possibly  ten 
times  the  skill,  required  in  producing  this  work 
from  wood  or  from  a  substance  that  can  be  carved 
from  the  solid  and  not  beaten  out  in  detail  and 
assembled. 

Difficulties  to  be  surmounted  have  seemed  always 
to  be  an  incentive  to  the  artist  who,  as  soon  as  the 
task  was  made  easy  for  him,  at  once  turned  from 
132 


WROUGHT    IRON 

it  to  find  another  field  of  endeavour  in  which  to 
display  some  tour  de  force. 

During  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  Gothic  period 
the  craftsmen  who  devoted  their  time  and  skill 
to  ironwork  directed  their  efforts  chiefly  to  the 
making  of  hinges  and  locks.  Most  of  the  iron 
applied  to  doors  or  chests  or  wall  openings  had 
as  its  governing  thought  defence  or  security.  It 
began  by  being  massive  and  forbidding,  but  gradu- 
ally, under  the  influence  of  art  revival  of  the 
Renaissance,  the  bars  and  hinges,  even  the  locks, 
took  on  an  ornamental  value,  and  each  worker 
strove  to  individualize  his  work  by  giving  it  some 
deft  touch,  inspired  perhaps  by  some  model  in 
church  or  palace. 

Under  Louis  XIV,  Louis  XV,  and  Louis  XVI 
iron  became  altogether  decorative,  and  park  grilles, 
stair-rails,  and  balconies  silhouette  their  exquisite 
lines  in  every  domain  or  house  of  importance.  It 
was  only  when  the  introduction  of  casting  per- 
mitted cheap  imitations  of  those  wonderful  works 
that  we  find  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  artists 
in  metal  to  neglect  their  art.  Cast  iron,  however, 
in  addition  to  the  inherent  defect  of  being  break- 
able, could  never  approach  in  fidelity  of  imitation 
the  wrought  ironwork  which  it  copied.  The 
mathematical  exactness  of  detail,  easy  to  repeat,  is 
133 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

another  vice  which  fortunately  has  prevented  the 
complete  eclipse  of  hand-wrought  ironwork.  The 
introduction  of  cast  iron,  while  temporarily  fatal  a 
hundred  years  ago  to  the  development  of  the  art 
of  ironmongery,  has  rendered  a  service  which 
might  be  likened  to  that  which  photography  has 
rendered  to  pictorial  art  in  general,  and  that  is 
that  it  has  made  possible  the  vulgarization,  the 
reproduction  by  wholesale  (although  it  must  be 
admitted  in  an  imperfect  and  unsatisfactory  man- 
ner), of  real  works  of  art  which  would  have  re- 
mained known  only  regionally. 

The  particular  richness,  the  quiet  sumptuosity 
of  wrought  iron  stair-rails,  doorways,  or  park 
grilles,  which  made  of  each  example  a  monumental 
jewel,  only  remained  temporarily  neglected,  how- 
ever, and  there  has  been  a  very  marked  revival, 
first  apparent  in  the  latter  days  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  now  in  full  activity,  of  this  really  fine 
art,  which  unites  the  decorative  and  sculptural, 
and  at  the  same  time  is  a  distinct  note  unrealizable 
through  other  means. 

Among  the  most  important  works  which  engage 
the  school  of  ironmongers  are  the  grilles.  These 
are  divided  into  exterior  grilles,  whose  mission  it 
is  to  enclose  large  places,  and  interior  grilles, 
where  the  opening  is  more  to  establish  artificial 
134 


LXXXIX.  IRON  LOCK 

During  the  XV  century  French  iron  work,  pris  dans  la  masse 

or  chiselled  from  the  solid,  gained  a  fame  that  spread  to  every 

corner  of  Europe 


XC.  WROUGHT  IRON  CONSOLE 

Each  masterpiece  of  delicate  tracery  has  had  in  it  ten  times  the 

effort,  and  possibly  ten  times  the  skill,  required  in  producing 

this  work  from  wood  or  from  a  substance  that  can  be  carved 

from  the  solid  and  not  beaten  out  in  detail  and  assembled 


WROUGHT    IRON 

divisions  in  an  enclosed  edifice  without  loss  of 
light. 

The  chief  requisite  in  exterior  grilles  is  resist- 
ance, since  they  constitute  a  defence  or  protection 
against  ingress  or  egress.  Therefore  here  beauty 
must  not  dwarf  solidity,  nor  will  it  suffice  for  an 
exterior  grille  to  be  solid  and  proof  against  attack: 
it  also  must  appear  possessed  of  these  qualities. 
Since  these  grilles  are  generally  viewed  at  a  con- 
siderable distance,  their  bars  outline  themselves  in 
black  against  a  light  background,  and  are  subject 
to  an  optical  illusion  which  makes  the  surroundings 
appear  to  swallow  up  some  of  the  thickness,  thus 
giving  them  a  thinness  which  they  do  not  actually 
possess.  In  order,  therefore,  to  conserve  this 
aspect  of  force  it  is  necessary  to  make  them  con- 
siderably thicker  than  the  safety  of  the  enclosed 
place  requires. 

This  consideration  is  altogether  absent  in  the 
case  of  interior  grilles,  and  their  delicacy  can  be 
pushed  even  to  the  point  of  fragility,  since  their 
object  is  to  permit  a  view  of  that  which  they 
enclose.  It  would  of  course  be  an  artistic  solecism 
for  it  to  be  too  close,  particularly  as  the  grilles 
may  be  looked  through  from  the  side  at  an  angle 
which  would  make  them  non-transparent. 

The  orthodox  manner,  therefore,  in  designing 
135 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

grilles  is  to  mass  the  ornamentation  in  the  pilas- 
ters or  traverses  and  to  allow  the  central  panel  or 
panels  to  be  unencumbered  with  detail. 

A  consideration  to  which  interior  grilles  are  sub- 
ject is  that  of  the  architectural  spirit  or  style  of 
the  edifice  in  which  they  are  disposed.  Obviously 
they  are  intimately  a  part  of  the  edifice  and  must 
harmonize  with  their  surroundings.  By  reason  of 
the  fact  that  they  must  be  viewed  at  a  closer 
range,  interior  grilles  demand  more  finish  than 
those  barring  gateways  to  parks  and  estates. 

In  the  exterior  grille  the  thing  to  strike  the  eye 
will  be  the  fundamental  line  in  the  decoration, 
while  in  an  interior  grille  more  concern  will  be  felt 
for  the  detail. 

Although  we  have  evidence  of  the  use  by  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  and  by  the  Chinese  of  an 
earlier  age,  of  iron  for  decorative  purposes,  we 
have  little  that  has  come  down  to  us  from  these 
days  to  show  the  extent  of  development  attained 
by  ironworkers  before  the  thirteenth  century. 

There  are  twelfth-century  door  handles,  door 
hinges,  and  grilles  dating  back  to  the  eleventh 
century,  and  wrought  ironwork  ornamenting 
church  doors  and  ancient  chests  of  the  twelfth 
century,  but  the  difficulties  of  the  period,  in  that 
the  smith  could  not  buy  his  iron  by  the  bar,  but 
136 


XCI.  WROUGHT  IRON  LOCK 

This  work  presents  an  architectural   ensemble  in  which  every 
detail  is  carved  from  the  solid 


WROUGHT    IRON 

had  to  fashion  it  from  rough  ingots  by  hand, 
necessarily  resulted  in  most  of  the  ancient  hard- 
ware assuming  outline  and  finish  far  below  that 
obtained  since,  particularly  during  the  Renaissance 
period. 

Until  nearly  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury about  the  only  thing  cast  in  iron  were  cannon 
and  shot  and  heavy  andirons  and  fire-backs.  The 
only  really  important  work  which  has  come  down 
to  us  from  that  time  is  the  exterior  railing  of  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral  in  London.  It  was  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century  that  cast  iron  came 
into  general  use  for  such  purposes. 

As  most  of  the  art  metal  work  deserving  of  the 
name  is  expressed  in  wrought  iron,  however,  the  ad- 
vantage which  the  metal  worker  of  the  present  day 
has  over  his  prototype  of  the  fourteenth  century 
is  less  in  the  forge  process  than  in  the  invention, 
first  patented  in  1784,  which  is  called  puddling, 
and  which  consists  in  the  boiling  and  stirring  up 
of  the  molten  metal  upon  a  hearth  until  all  its 
impurities  are  burned  out  by  oxygen.  The  iron 
leaves  the  puddling  furnace  as  a  spongy,  fiery,  and 
dripping  mass  and  passes  under  steam  hammers, 
which  press  the  metal  into  blooms.  The  blooms 
are  reheated  and  put  under  the  rolling  mills  and 
drawn  into  bars.  The  result  is  a  soft  and  fibrous 
137 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

metal  which  lends  itself  admirably  to  the  shaping 
and  fashioning  of  the  most  delicate  tracery  with 
the  expenditure  of  a  minimum  of  effort.  We  may 
dismiss  as  crude  and  artistically  unimportant  the 
clamps,  hasps,  and  locks  which  bound  and  secured, 
rather  than  ornamented,  the  treasure  chests  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Even  the  Norman  work  of  the 
twelfth  century  is  more  interesting  for  its  antiquity 
than  for  its  artistic  value.  Most  of  the  ironwork 
of  this  time  is  applied  to  doors  in  the  form  of 
strengthening  straps  and  hinges  and  is  made  out 
of  sheet  iron  cut  out  and  nailed  to  the  door. 

It  was  only  toward  the  end  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury that  ornamental  ironwork  may  be  said  to 
have  engaged  the  interest  of  the  artist.  Particularly 
in  France  do  we  find  this  tendency  to  combine  the 
useful  and  the  ornamental  coming  into  favour. 
The  hinged  straps  and  scrolls  are  no  longer  scored 
with  a  chisel,  but  moulded  under  the  hammer. 
This  particular  type  is  marked  by  the  constant 
repetition  of  a  tongue  between  two  unequal  scrolls 
for  every  termination.  The  ornaments  are  not 
welded  together,  but  nailed  separately  to  the  door. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  grilles  of  scrolled 
iron  came  into  use  both  in  France  and  England  as 
enclosures  in  abbeys  and  cathedrals.  These  boun- 
daries to  the  choir,  transepts,  and  side  chapels  are 
138 


XCII.  LANTERN— LOUIS  XVI  STYLE 

A  lampadaire  of  the  XIX  century  that  Benvenuto  Cellini  or 
Caffieri  would  not  have  disowned 


WROUGHT    IRON 

represented  by  fine  examples  in  the  Winchester 
Cathedral,  the  Pamplona  Cathedral  in  Spain,  in  a 
side  chapel  at  Le-Puy-en-Velay  in  France,  and  in 
the  Lincoln  Cathedral.  This  last  is  composed  of  a 
massive  frame  divided  into  panels,  filled  in  with  a 
multitude  of  small  scrolls  tied  together  in  pairs. 
This  same  pattern  was  used  in  the  grilles  behind 
the  altar  of  Notre  Dame  in  Paris  and  in  those 
of  the  Arras  Cathedral,  which  have  since  been 
destroyed. 

The  birth  of  Gothic  architecture  in  the  thirteenth 
century  was  reflected  in  an  increasing  grace  and 
elegance  in  the  ironwork  of  the  period.  Grilles 
are  no  longer  put  up  for  protection  and  defence 
and  are  used  more  as  an  element  of  refined  orna- 
ment. We  find  the  same  elaborate  foliated  sculp- 
ture in  iron  scroll  work  as  in  church  masonry. 
The  scrolls  assume  long  sweeping  lines  and  gradu- 
ated circles  filled  with  lilies  and  stalks  terminating 
in  full-grown  iris  flowers.  The  vine,  with  its 
fruit,  foliage,  and  tendrils,  is  used  on  a  great  many 
of  the  church  doors  of  this  period. 

To  produce  this  richly  stamped  ironwork  the 
smith  had  to  strike  hot  iron  into  prepared  dies,  as 
wax  is  pressed  into  a  seal.  By  this  means  designs 
could  be  executed  with  the  same  minute  elabora- 
tion as  in  carving.  The  secret  of  preparing  and 
139 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

using  steel  dies  was  of  French  origin,  and  it  is  in 
France  that  we  find  this  style  of  stamped  work 
developed  to  its  fullest  magnificence  in  the  door 
hinges  of  Notre  Dame  in  Paris  and  the  cathedrals 
of  Sens,  Mantes,  and  St.  Denis. 

The  hinges  of  the  Porte  Ste.  Anne  of  Notre 
Dame  remain  as  a  masterpiece  of  the  ironmongery 
of  the  day.  The  work  is  extravagantly  rich,  the 
hinges  consisting  of  three  spiral  scrolls  radiating 
from  a  central  stem  deeply  fluted  and  richly  orna- 
mented with  tufted  ends.  The  foliage  of  the 
scrolls  bears  here  and  there  strange  birds,  prob- 
ably of  symbolic  significance.  Each  hinge  and 
strengthening  piece  is  a  separate  independently 
designed  work,  complete  in  itself,  with  little  refer- 
ence to  its  neighbour,  neither  interlacing  nor  planned 
to  any  general  scale,  and  yet  in  perfect  accord 
with  the  general  symmetry  of  the  design.  There 
is  no  authentic  record  as  to  the  identity  of  the 
artist  who  composed  this  remarkable  jewel,  but 
tradition  ascribes  its  authorship  to  a  Burgundian 
smith  of  the  sixteenth  century  named  Bisconet. 
So  remarkable  in  workmanship  are  these  hinges 
that  Mathurin  Jousse,  writing  in  1627,  regrets 
that  Bisconet  died  without  passing  on  to  posterity 
the  secret  of  running  iron  as  other  fusible  metals. 
No  higher  tribute  could  be  paid  than  this  con- 
140 


WROUGHT   IRON 

fession  by  the  most  noted  smith  of  the  day  that 
he  was  unable  to  conceive  that  anything  so  rich 
could  possibly  have  been  forged,  and  that  he  was 
driven  to  suppose  that  it  had  been  cast  by  some 
utterly  lost  process. 

The  texture  of  iron  becomes  loosened  by  heat, 
and  as  it  softens  bars  will  droop  and  curl  into 
scrolls  under  a  relatively  slight  effort,  this  property 
making  of  it  an  obedient  metal  in  the  hands  of  the 
smiths.  When  hot  it  can  be  welded,  separate 
pieces  adhering  firmly  together  if  hammered  or 
pressed.  The  rich  intricate  effects  apparent  in  the 
work  of  Bisconet  were  produced  by  this  means. 
The  thirteenth-century  smith  had  indeed  to  strike 
while  the  iron  was  hot.  His  tools  consisted  merely 
of  hammer,  anvil,  forge,  bellows,  tongs,  and  chisel. 
The  several  pieces  in  a  grille  had  to  be  fixed  by 
driving  holes  through  the  heated  iron  and  riveting 
them  together,  or,  more  commonly,  by  binding  the 
pieces  round  with  hot  wisps  of  iron  called  collars. 

While  the  smith  of  to-day  can  buy  his  iron  ready 
rolled  into  a  thousand  different  sections,  the  con- 
temporary of  Bisconet  had  to  beat  out  every  sec- 
tion with  his  own  hands.  The  olden-time  smith 
cut  a  piece  from  his  shingled  bar  which  he  judged 
by  the  eye  would  beat  out  into  a  rod  of  the  re- 
quired length  or  curl  into  a  scroll  of  the  desired 
141 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

form.  More  or  less  sufficed  for  him,  and  by  his 
method  he  produced  an  artistic  irregularity  in 
even  the  most  monotonous  designs. 

The  closing  of  the  thirteenth  century  marks  the 
end  of  genuine  blacksmithing.  With  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fourteenth  century  the  smith  no  longer 
relies  exclusively  on  hammer  and  heat  to  produce 
his  effects.  He  begins  to  deal  with  iron  while 
cold.  File  and  saw,  vise  and  drill,  are  called  to 
his  aid  to  shape  the  pieces,  which  are  then  bolted 
or  riveted  together  without  heat  or  tenoned  and 
mortised  as  in  joinery.  Sheet  iron  pierced  into 
tracery  or  cut  and  hammered  into  the  shapes  of 
leaves  and  flowers  begins  to  enter  into  the  com- 
position, and  the  art  of  the  blacksmith  merges 
into  those  of  the  locksmith  and  armourer. 

The  choir  gates  from  the  Rouen  Cathedral  show 
one  of  the  earliest  adaptations  of  this  process  to 
grille  work.  Each  door  is  formed  of  half  round 
iron  bars  crossing  diagonally  with  other  bars, 
intersecting  the  spaces  at  right  angles  and  stamped 
at  the  ends  into  leafy  terminations.  Every  triangle 
thus  formed  contains  a  looped  scroll  finishing  alter- 
nately in  stamped  heads  and  rosettes,  with  a  simple 
tracery  in  the  eye  of  the  loop.  This  trellis  design 
is  believed  by  many  to  be  the  earliest  example 
anywhere  of  flat  iron  tracery  applied  to  grilles. 
142 


WROUGHT    IRON 

During  the  fourteenth  century  grilles  made  of 
small  bars  threaded  vertically  or  diagonally  through 
each  other  and  enriched  with  pierced  plates  and 
borders  made  their  appearance  in  France.  The 
quatrefoil  design  recurs  frequently,  and  the  basis  of 
most  of  the  grilles  is  architectural  or  geometric. 

A  great  many  window  grilles,  rich  in  design  and 
execution,  date  from  this  period,  notably  those  in 
the  Cathedral  of  Troyes,  which  is  overlaid  with 
pierced  bands  and  rosettes  and  is  ornamented  by 
a  rich  crocketed  top.  Another  dates  back  to  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  preserved  in  Nancy  is  a 
grille  of  trellis  work  almost  completely  hidden  by 
beaten  foliage  and  tracery. 

Most  of  the  British  metal  work  of  this  period 
shows  very  clearly  the  influence  of  the  French 
artists.  The  window  grilles  in  the  Canterbury 
Cathedral  were  fashioned  by  the  French  archi- 
tect William  of  Sens.  A  pair  of  gates  in  the 
Chichester  Cathedral  is  made  of  bars  neatly  halved 
where  they  intersect  to  form  a  number  of  small 
square  panels.  Each  frames  a  square  plain  quatre- 
foil, then  the  prevalent  ornament  in  France. 

The    Henry   V   Chantry   grille   in   Westminster 

Abbey,  which  dates  from  1428,  is  plainly  borrowed 

from  the  grille  in  the  Church  of  Saint  Pierre  at 

Caen.    All  the  scrolls,  including  the  massive  tim- 

143 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

her  frame,  are  reproduced  in  iron  by  a  combina- 
tion of  smith  work  and  pierced  sheet  iron.  Here 
also  the  quatrefoil  diaper  is  used.  Another  direct 
copy  in  iron  of  French  fourteenth-century  joinery 
occurs  in  the  choir  gates  of  the  Canterbury  Cathe- 
dral, the  original  of  which  may  be  found  at  Luxeuil. 

In  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  the  use 
of  sheet  iron  became  general.  The  metal  is  pierced 
and  embossed  into  rich  leaf  form  and  frequently 
several  thicknesses  of  the  metal,  pierced  to  repre- 
sent tracery,  are  riveted  together  in  such  a  way 
that  each  thickness  presents  a  different  outline. 

By  the  use  of  these  superimposed  pierced 
sheets,  the  utmost  delicacy  in  outline  was  obtained. 
The  panels  in  the  sacristy  door  in  the  Cathedral 
of  Rouen  are  a  fine  example  of  this  laborious  treat- 
ment. The  crockets,  pinnacles,  and  leading  lines 
of  the  tracery  are  chiselled  and  filed  from  the 
solid  iron  in  full  relief. 

Locks  and  knockers  of  this  period  chiselled  out 
of  solid  iron,  and  chased  as  if  in  silver,  are  much 
sought  after  by  collectors,  who  have  given  as  high 
as  five  thousand  dollars  for  a  single  specimen. 

The  French  smiths,  who  had  always  enjoyed  a 
reputation  for  high  skill  and  fecundity  in  design- 
ing, added  to  their  renown  during  the  fifteenth 
century,    when    French    ironwork,    pris    dans    la 
144 


XCIV.  FRENCH  LOCK  PLATE 
XV  century  locksmithing 


WROUGHT    IRON 

masse,  or  chiselled  from  the  solid,  gained  a  fame 
that  spread  to  every  corner  of  Europe.  Un- 
limited time  and  consummate  knowledge,  to  say 
nothing  of  native  good  taste,  were  expended  by  the 
French  smiths  in  these  productions,  and  the  ex- 
amples which  remain  are  all  marked  by  peculiarly 
artistic  refinement  characteristic  of  the  French 
artist  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  designs  are  conceived  in  the  finest  mediaeval 
spirit  and  the  work  presents  an  architectural 
ensemble  in  which  every  detail  is  carved  from  the 
solid  and  where  the  background  consists  of  plate 
work  of  intricate  tracery. 

The  museum  of  Cluny  possesses  several  speci- 
mens of  locks  dating  from  this  period,  which  are 
works  of  art  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word.  A 
smith  of  the  period  aspiring  to  the  rank  of  master 
craftsman  was  held  by  the  statutes  of  the  brother- 
hood to  devote  two  years  to  the  making  of  one 
lock,  which  would  afterward  have  to  be  passed 
upon  by  a  jury  of  masters  and  accepted  by  them 
as  a  qualifying  chef  d'&uvre. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  the  locksmiths  were  the 
most  powerful  corporation  of  Paris,  and  as  late  as 
1549,  when  Henry  II  made  his  entry  into  the 
Capital,  they  still  ranked  fifth  in  point  of  impor- 
tance and  were  represented  by  sixty  masters 
145 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

attended  by  their  apprentices.  Locksmithing,  how- 
ever, reached  its  apogee  in  France  under  Louis 
XIII,  when  the  monarch  who  personally  de- 
lighted to  work  at  the  bench  and  forge,  fashion- 
ing intricate  locks  and  elaborately  ornamented 
keys,  installed  in  the  Royal  Palace  the  famous 
locksmith  Rossignol,  with  the  title  of  Serrurier  du 
Roi.  The  smiths  of  the  day,  however,  did  not 
limit  their  efforts  to  the  turning  out  of  locks, 
and  we  have  innumerable  door  knockers,  steel 
mirrors,  wall  brackets,  and  chased  flambeaux  to 
attest  the  versatility  of  the  metal  workers  of  that 
period. 

The  magnificent  chandelier  of  polished  iron  pre- 
served in  the  Cluny  Museum  and  innumerable 
lanterns  of  the  seventeenth  century  remain  as  evi- 
dence that  the  art  of  to-day  has  progressed  very 
little  if  at  all  since  that  Golden  era. 

As  for  architectural  applications  we  find  stair- 
rails,  screens,  balcony-rails,  park  gates,  sign  brack- 
ets, etc.,  coming  into  favour  as  far  back  as  1610, 
when  Louis  XIII  commissioned  the  foremost  smiths 
of  his  day  to  flank  the  staircases  of  the  Palais 
Royal  and  of  the  Chateau  of  Fontainebleau  with 
balustrades  of  chased  and  gilt  iron.  The  railing 
around  the  statue  of  Henry  IV  on  the  Pont  Neuf, 
in  Paris,  which  was  ordered  by  Richelieu  in  1640 
146 


XCV.  MODERN  GRILLE— SPANISH  INSPIRATION 

Modern  grille  work  showing  Spanish  influence  and  inspiration 


XCVI.  XIV  CENTURY  KNOCKER 


WROUGHT    IRON 

or    thereabouts,    is   described    by    Evelyn    in    his 
diary  as  "very  magnificent." 

The  vogue  given  to  this  form  of  ironmongery 
by  Louis  XIII  developed  and  greatly  expanded 
under  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV,  when  Royal  Palaces 
were  invariably  approached  through  spacious  court- 
yards, surrounded  by  elaborate  iron  railings  and 
entered  through  magnificent  gates. 

The  stair  balustrades  of  this  period  assume  a 
sumptuous  character,  and  the  magnificence  of 
this  work  is  second  to  none  of  the  other  arts 
which  flourished  during  that  rich  epoch. 

Commissions  given  by  the  King  for  the  Palace 
of  Versailles  amounted  to  over  a  million  livres  for 
the  metal  work  alone.     The  great  Screen  to  the 
Court  of  Honour  with  its  gates  cost  no  less  than,* 
thirty-two  thousand  pounds. 

Other  remarkable  examples  of  grille  work  and 
stair-rail  of  the  Louis  XIV  period  still  exist  at 
Marly,  Fontainebleau,  St.  Cloud,  St.  Germain, 
Chantilly,  Choisy,  Meudon,  Sceaux,  and  Vaux 
Le-Vicomte.  Each  of  these  specimens  is  rich  and 
costly  and  full  of  nobility  and  grandeur.  The 
smiths  who  executed  them  were  lavishly  patron- 
ized, and  were  moved  in  addition  with  a  real  pride 
in  their  work. 

Louis  XV  did  not  continue  the  tradition  of  his 
147 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

predecessor  with  the  same  degree  of  lavishness, 
but  the  Court  and  the  Church  became  increasingly 
munificent  in  their  patronage  of  the  art,  and  we 
find  nearly  every  cathedral  in  France  embellishing 
itself  with  magnificent  choir  screens,  some  twenty 
feet  in  height  and  designed  by  the  most  eminent 
artists  of  the  day. 

The  choir  screen  of  the  Church  of  St.  Germain- 
1'Auxerrois  which  Pierre  Deumier  had  contracted 
to  execute  for  the  sum  of  thirty-eight  thousand 
pounds,  was  found  to  be  so  much  more  beautiful 
than  the  clergy  of  the  Church  had  anticipated 
that  the  astonished  smith  was  presented  with  a 
bonus  of  twelve  thousand  pounds. 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
ironwork  shows  the  influence  of  the  change  in 
style  and  growing  tendency  to  the  classical.  Lines 
reach  a  Greek  precision,  and  curves  gradually  dis- 
appear in  favour  of  rectilinear  ornament. 

The  metal  work  of  the  time  of  Louis  XVI, 
however,  is  only  a  shade  less  beautiful  than  that 
executed  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV  and  Louis  XV, 
and  the  screen  of  the  courtyard  of  the  Palais  de 
Justice  is  there  to  substantiate  this  assertion. 

The  ironwork  of  Spain,  although  not  as  glorious 
in  traditions  and  aspect  as  that  of  France,  achieved 
such  an  individual  quality  during  the  sixteenth 
148 


XCVH.  FRENCH   DOOR  KNOCKER 
French  Knocker  XV  century,  prisdans  la  masse 


WROUGHT    IRON 

century,  particularly  in  its  application  to  grilles 
in  ecclesiastical  edifices,  that  it  has  imparted  a 
distinct  national  lustre  to  metal  working  in  that 
country  which  the  ironwork  of  Germany  or  Flanders 
never  possessed. 

Examples  of  twelfth  and  thirteenth  century 
screens  are  met  with  in  which  the  French  inspi- 
ration is  readily  traced,  but  when  we  come  to 
the  sixteenth  century  we  find  in  the  design  of  the 
rejas,  as  the  surrounding  screens  shutting  off  the 
main  altar  of  cathedrals  are  called,  a  startlingly 
original  note  struck  by  the  adoption  of  spindled 
balusters  with  moulding,  in  place  of  plain  rectan- 
gular bars.  The  technical  difficulty  attending  the 
forging  of  these  spindled  balusters  was  such  that 
they  were  rarely  attempted  in  hammered  iron, 
until  adopted  by  the  Spanish  as  a  type.  To  pro- 
duce these  not  in  twos  or  threes  but  literally  in 
thousands  must  have  been  a  work  of  colossal  labor. 
In  many  of  the  rejas  of  that  period,  however,  they 
are  actually  as  common  as  plain  rectangular  bars 
elsewhere  and  as  if  to  excite  admiration  whole 
rows  are  embellished  with  foliage  carved  out  of 
the  solid.  The  effect  of  this  spindle  baluster  in 
conjunction  with  architectural  supports  and  crest- 
ing in  the  florid  Gothic  style  is  effective  in  the 
extreme. 

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DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

In  the  most  elaborate  examples  many  figures 
are  introduced,  and  even  scenes  and  historical 
events,  to  such  a  degree  that  they  resemble  gold- 
smithing  on  a  monumental  scale  more  than  iron- 
mongery. 

The  rejas  of  the  Cathedrals  of  Seville,  Toledo, 
Granada,  and  Burgos  rise  majestically  to  a  height 
of  forty  feet  or  more.  The  spindles  are  forged 
from  the  solid,  but  the  pilasters  and  some  of  the 
cornice  work  are  of  wood  cased  with  thin  repouss'e 
iron.  One  of  the  rejas  that  has  come  down  to  us  is 
that  of  the  Capilla  Mayor  in  the  Seville  Cathedral 
which  is  the  work  of  the  celebrated  friar  Francisco 
de  Salamanca.  This  is  in  plateresque  style,  with 
three  tiers  of  spindle  balusters,  divided  by  massive- 
looking  pillars  sheathed  in  rich  stamped  iron.  In 
addition  to  the  sumptuous  frieze  of  finely  modelled 
medallions  and  arabesques  with  figures,  a  lower 
and  equally  rich  border  intersects  the  screen,  while 
the  cresting  is  a  truly  marvellous  work  crowded 
with  saints  and  angels  within  scrolls  or  standing 
on  pinnacles  among  tall  candelabra. 

Other  works  by  this  same  master  are  the  screen 
in  the  Convent  of  Guadalupe  and  that  in  the 
Salamanca  Cathedral. 

The  Seville  Cathedral  is  also  the  repository  of  a 
gold  screen  which  encloses  the  choir  and  which  is 
150 


XCVIII.  CHANDELIER 

Thanks  to  the  greater  malleability  of  iron,  the  modern  product 
is  more  finished 


XCIX.  GOTHIC  LANTERN 

A  modern  lantern  in  the  execution  of  which  the  smith  must 
share  the  credit  with  the  designer 


WROUGHT    IRON 

the  work  of  Sancho  Munez.  The  central  mass  is  in 
this  instance  of  twisted  bars  with  iron-sheeted 
pillars  at  intervals  in  which  a  lavish  display 
is  made  of  exquisitely  embossed  detail  with  a 
tier  of  spindle  balusters  above  and  below.  The 
frieze  displays  the  five  Apostles  in  medallions 
and  is  surmounted  by  a  heavy  moulding  and 
fretted  cornice,  which  in  turn  is  topped  by  a  crest- 
ing divided  by  towering  candelabra  separated  by 
fine  scrollwork. 

The  reja  in  front  of  the  Capilla  Mayor  in  the 
Cuenca  Cathedral  by  Hernando  de  Arenas  and 
that  in  the  Palencia  Cathedral  by  Cristobal  Andino 
are  also  notable  examples  of  this  distinct  type  of 
grille.  The  Cuenca  reja  rises  to  a  height  of  forty- 
five  feet,  while  that  of  Palencia  is  nearly  as 
monumental. 

Like  the  fine  grille  of  the  Chapel  del  Condes- 
table,  in  the  Cathedral  of  Burgos,  they  date  from 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  are 
magnificent  examples  not  only  of  design  but  of 
execution. 

The  names  of  Bartolome,  Domingo  Cespedes, 
Francisco  de  Villalpando,  Caspar  Rodriguez,  and 
Juan  Bautista  Celma  are  signed  to  other  magnifi- 
cent rejas  in  the  cathedrals  and  churches  of  Gran- 
ada, Toledo,  Plascencia,  and  Sargossa;  and  while 
151 


DECORATIVE    ELEMENTS    IN    ARCHITECTURE 

the  grilles  in  the  cathedrals  of  Oviedo,  Panplona, 
Segovia,  Siguenza  and  Tortosa  are  signed  by 
artists  of  lesser  fame,  they  yet  possess  the  same 
element  of  restraint  and  beauty  that  are  but 
variations  of  the  one  type. 


THE    END 


152 


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